;OR  PROBLEMS* vc 
[LABOR  LEGISLATION 

HD 

17834 


GIFT   OF 


Labor  Problems 

and 

Labor  Legislation 


JOHN  B.  ANDREWS,  PH.D. 

SECRETARY,   AMERICAN   ASSOCIATION  FOR  LABOR  LEGISLATION 
EDITOR,   AMERICAN  LABOR  LEGISLATION  REVIEW 


American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation 

131  East  23d  Street,  New  York  City 

1919 


Contents 

FOREWORD 5 

EMPLOYMENT 7 

Distribution  of  labor  supply — Regulation  of  private 
employment  agencies — Public  employment  offices — 
PublidWork— Regularization  of  industry 

WAGES      . 23 

Payment  of  wages — Minimum  wage  laws 

HOURS 45 

First  modern  factory  law — Women's  hour  legislation — 
Night  work — Regulation  of  men's  hours — Eight-hour 
day — One  day's  rest  in  seven 

SAFETY 69 

Accident  reporting — Factories  and  workshops — Mining 
— Railroads  and  street  cars — Navigation — Adminis- 
trative orders 

HEALTH 83 

Occupational  disease  reporting — Causes  of  occupational 
disease — Health  and  morals  of  child  workers — Employ- 
ment of  women  and  men — Prohibition  of  dangerous 
substances — Regulation  of*  workshop  conditions 

SELF-GOVERNMENT  IN  INDUSTRY     . 97 

Growth  of  trade  unions — Strikes  and  lockouts — Picket- 
ing—Boycott and  blacklists — "Open"  and  "closed"  shop 
— Mediation  or  conciliation — Arbitration — Toward  in- 
dustrial democracy 

SOCIAL  INSURANCE 113 

Workmen's  compensation  for  accidents — Health  insur- 
ance—Unemployment  insurance — Invalidity  insurance 
— Old  age  insurance 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  LAWS 127 

Labor  bureaus — Factory  inspectors — Industrial  com- 
missions— Regulation  through  continuous  investigations 
— Civil  service  and  other  problems — Co-operation  by 
economic  pressure — International  labor  regulation 


V\  " 


Foreword 

AMERICA  has  won  a  world  war  for  de- 
mocracy.  Counting  not  the  cost  in  suffering 
and  treasure,  she  took  her  stand  in  the  trenches 
of  liberty,  that  the  conditions  of  the  people  of 
the  world  might  be  bettered.  No  selfish  aims 
marred  the  morale  of  her  splendid  fighting 
forces,  and  in  the  great  settlement  her  weight 
was  thrown  in  the  scales  for  liberty  and  justice 
to  all. 

The  world  war  in  which  we  were  victorious 
closed  one  epoch  of  human  history,  and  opened 
another — a  new  era  in  which  the  principles  of 
righteousness  and  equality  of  opportunity  are  to 
march  on  until  they  come  into  their  own  in  the 
minds  and  institutions  of  men.  The  same  pro- 
gressive spirit  which  made  our  nation  strong  in 
time  of  strife  must  guide  our  steps  in  the  days  of 
peace.  As  President  Wilson  well  said,  "The 
men  in  the  trenches,  who*  have  been  freed  from 
the  economic  serfdom  to  which  some  of  them 
have  been  accustomed,  will,  it  is  likely,  return  to 
their  homes  with  a  new  view  and  a  new  impa- 
tience of  all  mere  political  phrases,  and  will  de- 
mand real  thinking  and  sincere  action."  The 
doughboys  of  liberty  abroad  will  become  the 
champions  of  democracy  at  home,  and  with  them 


will  line  up  the  progressive  civilians  of  the 
country,  the  men  and  women  who  have  caught 
the  vision  of  the  new  day. 

But  democracy — real  democracy,  the  kind  we 
worked  and  bled  for — means  more  than  many  of 
us  have  thought.  It  means  more  than  merely 
voting  once  a  year  for  some  one  to  govern  us. 
It  means  more  equal  opportunities  for  life  and 
labor,  for  health  and  comfort  and  enjoyment. 
It  means  a  living  income,  security  of  employ- 
ment, protection  against  accident  and  disease, 
self-government  in  industry,  and  leisure  for  edu- 
cation and  the  duties  of  citizenship.  Until  these 
things  are  won,  our  democracy  is  but  one-sided. 
The  labor  legislation  here  described  marks  the 
progress  of  a  century  in  the  development,  by 
governmental  methods,  of  democratic  standards 
for  American  industry. 


Employment 
CHAPTER  ONE 

A  MAN  willing  to  work  and  unable  to 
find  work,"  said  Carlyle,  "is,  perhaps, 
the  saddest  sight  that  fortune's  inequal- 
ity exhibits  under  the  sun."  Yet  Secre- 
tary of  Labor  William  B.  Wilson  estimates  that 
there  are  at  all  times  in  the  United  States  from 
one  to  three  millions  who  are  "employed  or  un- 
employed in  accordance  with  industrial  activity 
or  industrial  depression.".  Thus  the  federal  Cen- 
sus of  Manufactures  for  1909  showed  that  in  the 
slackest  month  of  the  year  the  number  of  those 
employed  was   11.4  per  cent,  less  than  in  the 
busiest  month. 

Such  irregularity  of  work  causes  loss  to  both 
employer  and  workman.  The  latter  loses  by 
the  stoppage  or  reduction  of  wages,  leading  to 
suffering,  discouragement,  and  often  suicide  or 
crime.  "Morality  and  religion,"  in  the  words 
of  Horace  Greeley,  "are  but  words  to  him  who 
fishes  in  the  gutters  for  means  of  sustaining  life, 
and  crouches  behind  barrels  in  the  street  for 
shelter  from  the  cutting  blasts  of  a  winter  night." 
The  employer,  on  the  other  hand,  loses  through 
the  interruption  of  output  and  sales,  and  also 
through  the  high  expense  attached  to  breaking  in 
new  help.  Careful  studies  have  found  this  ex- 

[7] 


EMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


OUT  OF  A  JOB. 

During  industrial  depressions   the   homeless   unemployed  in 
large  cities  often  go  shelterless. 

pense  to  range  from  $50  to  $100  for  each  new 
worker. 

In  addition  to  fluctuations  in  the  demand  for 
labor  due  to  the  seasons  or  the  recurrent  waves 
of  industrial  prosperity  and  depression,  other 
important  causes  of  involuntary  idleness  are 
changes  in  the  nature  or  location  of  industry, 
lack  of  a  centralized  market  for  labor,  excessive 
"hiring  and  firing"  or  labor  turn-over,  and  ir- 
regular or  casual  nature  of  the  work.  As  these 
causes  have  always  been  more  or  less  operative, 
unemployment  has  been  always  present,  in  good 
times  as  well  as  in  bad.  As  stated  by  an  official 


EMPLOYMENT 


United  States  report,  "Most  unemployment  has 
no  connection  whatever  with  any  fault  of  the 
worker."  It  is  a  problem  of  industry. 

Distribution  of  Labor  Supply 

At  the  same  time  that  there  have  been  thou- 
sands of  men  fruitlessly  searching  for  work, 
there  have  been  employers  eagerly  seeking  men. 
Even  during  the  war  involuntary  idleness  and 
labor  shortage  existed  side  by  side.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  solution  of  the  unemploy- 
ment problem  lies  in  quickly  and  effectively 
bringing  together  the  jobless  man  and  the  man- 
less  job. 

Many  men  find  work  through  the  recommen- 
dation of  a  relative  or  friend.  Some  simply 
tramp  the  streets  in  the  haphazard  search  for  a 
shingle  or  a  piece  of  cardboard  with  the  words 
"Help  wanted"  scrawled  upon  it.  Others  rise 
before  daybreak  and  by  the  light  of  the  corner 
lamp-post  scan  the  columns  of  the  "want  ads" 
in  the  morning  paper.  Arrived  at  the  address 
given  they  may  find  fifty  or  a  hundred  applicants 
waiting  for  the  same  position.  A  few  workers, 
with  special  qualifications,  insert  their  own  ad- 
vertisements in  the  papers,  in  the  hope  that  some 
employer  will  call  for  their  services.  Alto- 
gether millions  of  dollars  are  spent  in  these  ways 
yearly,  with  very  poor  results  in  the  distribution 
of  labor.  Newspaper  advertising  also  lends  it- 

[9] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


BITTER  BREAD. 

The  man  who  is  driven  to  the  bread  line  for  a  crust  to  eat 
all  too  often  falls  into  the  ranks  of  the  unemployable. 

self  to  fraudulent  and  even  immoral  uses  by 
which  many  wage  workers  have  been  victimized. 

Regulation  of  Private  Employment  Agencies 

Somewhat  more  systematic  means  of  connect- 
ing men  with  jobs  are  afforded  by  private  em- 
ployment offices.  In  nearly  every  large  city 
there  are  philanthropic  agencies  which  charge 
no  fees  for  their  services.  Unfortunately  these 
have  become  known  as  last  resorts  for  inefficients, 
and  do  not  attract  high  grade  workmen  .or  em- 
ployers. For  their  own  trades  some  labor  unions 

[10] 


EMPLOYMENT 


and  employers'  associations  maintain  "day 
rooms"  where  chances  to  work  are  distributed. 
Of  those  operated  by  employers'  associations  it 
is  frequently  declared  that  they  are  strike-break- 
ing or  blacklisting  agencies.  Much  more  wide- 
spread than  any  of  these  types  are  the  commer- 
cial employment  bureaus,  operated  for  private 
profit,  which  abound  in  all  industrial  centers, 
to  the  number  throughout  the  country  of  about 
5,000.  A  few  are  specialized  professional  agen- 
cies for  teachers,  trained  nurses,  theatrical  per- 
sons or  the  like,  but  in  the  main  they  deal  with 
unskilled  and  domestic  labor. 

While  many  commercial  employment  bureaus 
do  good  work,  others  are  known  to  indulge  in 
highly  discreditable  practices.  They  have  often 
been  found  by  official  investigators,  for  instance, 
to  misrepresent  wages  and  conditions  of  work, 
send  girl  applicants  to  immoral  resorts,  split 
fees  with  foremen  who  discharge  old  employees 
in  order  to  hire  new  ones  through  the  agency, 
and  even  to  send  men  and  women  to  great  dis- 
tances where  there  is  no  call  for  their  services. 
In  the  effort  to  check  these  abuses,  most  states 
now  provide  that  commercial  employment  agen- 
cies shall  be  bonded  and  licensed.  Other  regu- 
lations prohibit  the  location  of  employment  bu- 
reaus in  saloons  or  gambling  places,  and  limit 
the  size  of  the  fee  that  may  be  charged.  In  a 
few  states  advertisements  for  help  must  mention 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

the  existence  of  any  strike  or  lockout.  The  form 
of  register  is  sometimes  specified,  to  assist  in 
the  collection  of  information  on  the  condition 
of  the  labor  market,  but  in  practice  the  figures 
from  private  agencies  have  hardly  proven  worth 
the  pains  to  gather  them. 

In  the  main,  the  regulations  placed  upon  pri- 
vate employment  bureaus  have  been  upheld  by 
the  courts  as  a  reasonable  exercise  of  the  police 
power  in  behalf  of  public  welfare.  Experience 
has  shown,  however,  that  they  have  not  suc- 
ceeded in  wiping  out  the  abuses  committed  by 
private  offices,  and  the  result  has  been  a  wide- 
spread movement  for  the  elimination  of  such 
offices  altogether.  A  state  law  to  this  effect  was 
initiated  and  adopted  by  the  people  of  Wash- 
ington in  1914,  but  was  declared  unconstitu- 
tional by  a  majority  decision  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  on  the  ground  that  it 
interfered  with  a  "useful  business." 

Public  Employment  Offices 

The  next  step  in  the  organization  of  the  labor 
market  is  the  establishment  of  public  employ- 
ment offices.  Beginning  with  five  such  bureaus 
opened  by  Ohio  in  1890,  the  movement  spread 
until  in  1916  there  were  ninety-six,  half  of  which 
had  been  created  since  1910.  Most  of  these 
were  under  state  auspices,  nearly  half  of  the 
states  being  represented;  some  were  maintained 

[12] 


EMPLOYMENT 


by  cities ;  and  a  few,  like  the  very  efficient  office 
at  Cleveland,  were  under  joint  state-city  man- 
agement. 

When  the  war  came,  drafting  millions  of  our 
able-bodied  men  for  military  service,  and  ne- 
cessitating the  shift  of  many  millions  more  to 


(Harding,   in   Brooklyn   Eagle.) 

COLD  COMFORT. 

Statistics  are  interesting — in  their  place — but  the  unemployed 
want  work. 

[13] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

munitions,  shipbuilding,  and  other  war  indus- 
tries, the  country  realized  as  never  before  the 
need  for  a  nation-wide  system  of  public  employ- 
ment offices  for  the  prompt  and  efficient  dis- 
tribution of  labor. 

Such  a  system  had  been  in  operation  in  Great 
Britain  since  1909,  and  although  the  area  of  that 
country  is  only  one-twenty-fifth  of  ours  there 
were  more  than  400  offices.  These  were  grouped 
in  eight  administrative  districts,  each  with  a 
divisional  clearing  house  in  direct  communica- 
tion with  the  central  office  in  London.  In  addi- 
tion, linked  with  the  offices  were  over  1,000  local 
agencies  which  assisted  in  the  administration  of 
unemployment  insurance,  so  that  the  system  was 
closely  in  touch  with  workers  in  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  Before  the  war  it  was  filling  some 
17,000  vacancies  weekly,  mostly  with  skilled 
workmen,  and  this  number  increased  due  to  the 
industrial  demands  of  the  conflict. 

In  the  United  States,  however,  the  war  found 
us  with  our  state  and  city  employment  offices 
poorly  co-ordinated.  While  war  manufacturers 
were  clamoring  for  help,  men  were  tramping 
the  streets  in  search  of  work.  Employers 
adopted  the  policy  of  "raiding"  one  another  for 
desirable  mechanics,  and  the  commercial  job- 
bureaus  were  reaping  a  harvest  from  the  needs 
of  the  nation.  Finally  the  situation  grew  so 
bad  that  a  number  of  distribution  offices  run 

[14] 


EMPLOYMENT 


0?  UNEMPLOYMENT  AMONG  TRADE  UNIOH  MEMBERS 
(Due  to  Lack  of  Work  or  Materials) 
1907-1915 


THE  ZIG-ZAG  OF  INDUSTRY. 

Most  unemployment  is  not  the  workman's  fault.    He  is  laid 
off  because  of  fluctuations  in  the  demand  for  his  labor. 

by  the  federal  Immigration  Service  were  taken 
over  by  a  new  governmental  agency  known  as 
the  United  States  Employment  Service,  and 
linked  up  under  co-operative  agreements  with 
most  of  the  state  and  municipal  bureaus.  We 
then  had  nearly  800  public  employment  offices 
under  unified  control.  In  about  nine  months 
they  reported  having  referred  2,500,000  persons 
to  positions.  But  they  were  operating  merely 
as  a  war  emergency  organization,  on  a  grant  of 

[15] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


WAITING  FOR  A  JOB. 

Men  often  wait  in  front  of  factories  for  a  chance  to  work 
while  elsewhere  employers  lack   men. 

$2,000,000  from  the  President's  war  emergency 
appropriation.  Despite  the  demonstrated  serv- 
ice of  the  system  to  the  country  during  the  crisis, 
and  the  obvious  indications  that  it  would  be 
equally  necessary  during  the  period  of  demob- 
ilization and  reconstruction,  Congress  adjourned 
in  March,  1919,  without  setting  aside  the  neces- 
sary money  to  carry  on  the  work.  As  a  result, 
the  magnificent  and  promising  federal  Employ- 
ment Service  had  to  be  80  per  cent,  abandoned 
except  in  so  far  as  a  few  state  and  voluntary 
organizations  took  over  parts  of  the  work.  One 

[16] 


EMPLOYMENT 


of  the  big  tasks  before  the  country  is  to  restore 
it  as  soon  as  possible. 

Public  Work 

Even  the  best  system  of  public  employment 
offices  cannot  make  work  when  there  is  no  work. 
Hence  practically  ever  since  unemployment  be- 
came a  modern  industrial  problem  there  has 
been  the  repeated  demand  that  government  pro- 
vide means  of  earning  a  livelihood  for  those  shut 
out  from  private  industry.  It  is  felt  that  thus 
giving  the  unemployed  an  opportunity  under 
government  direction  to  be  self-supporting 
would  cost  little  more  than  caring  for  them  by 
public  or  private  charity,  it  would  not  debase 
them  as  charity  would,  and  at  the  same  time  work 
of  public  importance  would  be  accomplished. 
During  the  severe  industrial  depression  of  1914- 
1915  more  than  100  American  cities  provided 
emergency  work  of  this  character,  including 
sewer-building,  street  and  road-making,  quarry- 
ing, forestry,  drainage,  waterworks,  building, 
painting,  and  even  clerical  duties. 

Emergency  public  work  for  the  unemployed 
has  not  always  proven  as  efficient  or  as  economi- 
cal as  it  should  be.  Yet  opinion  is  growing  that 
the  flaws  are  due  to  poor  administration  rather 
than  to  any  fault  in  the  idea  itself. 

Furthermore,  it  is  becoming  recognized  that 
waiting  until  the  emergency  has  overtaken  the 

[17] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


"HELP  WANTED." 

The  symbol  of  inefficiency  in  the  organization  of  the  labor 

market. 

community  before  arranging  for  public  work  is 
wasteful  and  leads  to  unnecessary  hardship. 
More  stress  is  therefore  being  put  on  the  plan 
of  preparing  in  ordinary  times  for  the  slump 
which  is  almost  certain  to  occur  in  the  course 
of  the  industrial  cycle.  It  has  therefore  been 
urged  that  each  community  or  country  lay 
out  a  carefully  calculated  plan  of  necessary  pub- 
lic improvements,  with  sufficient  appropriation 
to  cover  the  cost,  which  could  be  pushed  ahead 
without  delay  at  the  beginning  of  serious  indus- 
trial depression.  In  this  way  public  work,  in- 

[18] 


EMPLOYMENT 


stead  of  dropping  off  along  with  private  indus- 
try, as  is  now  often  the  case,  would  expand  and 
tend  to  stabilize  employment.  It  would,  in  fact, 
act  as  a  sponge,  absorbing  the  surplus  of  labor 
which  private  employers  at  certain  times  are  un- 
able to  utilize,  and  releasing  it  when  business 
again  picks  up.  A  number  of  cities  have  made 
beginnings  in  this  direction. 

Regularization  of  Industry 

The  heart  of  the  problem  of  preventing  unem- 
ployment has  not  yet  been  reached.  Lack  of 
work  for  those  able  and  willing  to  work  results 
from  the  maladjustments  and  fluctuations  of  in- 
dustry. No  system  of  remedies  is  complete 
which  does  not  include  the  regularization  of  in- 
dustry itself.  Such  regularization  is  demanded 
in  the  interests  of  both  employer  and  employee 
— on  one  side  to  keep  down  overhead  expenses 
and  to  secure  the  best  returns  from  the  business, 
on  the  other  to  prevent  destitution  and  conse- 
quent demoralization. 

One  method  of  regularization  which  has  been 
successfully  used  is  to  send  out  samples  and  se- 
cure orders  as  far  as  a  year  ahead.  In  this  way 
the  market  can  be  carefully  gauged,  gluts  avoid- 
ed, and  production  held  at  a  fairly  uniform  level. 
Some  industries  develop  supplementary  lines, 
such  as  tennis  shoes  and  rubber  tires  in  a  rubber 
shoe  factory.  Others  endeavor  to  avoid  extreme 

[19]  • 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


PRIVATE  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCY. 

These  agencies  may  be  found  in  every  big  city.    Many  are 
notorious  for  defrauding   their  applicants. 

styles  and  develop  staple  lines  which  are  always 
in  demand.  Artificial  drying  has  helped  to  sta- 
bilize brick  manufacture.  The  growth  of  care- 
ful employment  management,  by  which  appli- 
cants for  work  are  selected  for  the  particular 
task  they  are  to  do,  are  transferred  to  other  de- 
partments if  possible  instead  of  being  laid  off 
in  slack  periods,  and  are  discharged  only  by 
some  central  authority  after  all  efforts  to  use 
them  in  the  plant  have  failed,  has  also  proved 
helpful.  The  "Liverpool  dock  scheme,"  by 
which  the  longshoremen  are  pooled  into  one 
labor  reserve  instead  of  each  hanging  around  the 

[20] 


EMPLOYMENT 


office  of  one  particular  ship  company,  can  be  ap- 
plied in  principle  to  many  other  occupations. 
To  some  extent,  also,  it  is  possible  to  dovetail 
occupations,  so  that  building  laborers,  for  in- 
stance, can  in  the  winter  find  places  in  ice  cutting 
or  logging,  and  city  factory  employees  can  spend 
the  summer  months  as  farm  or  harvest  hands. 

A  great  deal  to  stimulate  this  desirable  regu- 
larization  of  industry  can  be  accomplished  by  the 
proper  application  of  the  principle  of  insur- 
ance. When  involuntary  idleness  entitles  the 
worker  to  a  definite  money  allowance  to  tide 
him  and  his  family  over  the  slack  season,  those 
in  charge  of  industry  will  have  an  additional 
incentive  to  reduce  industrial  fluctuations  to  a 
minimum. 


PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT  OFFICE. 

Public  employment  offices — when  clean,  efficient,  and  honest 
— bring  good  workmen  and  employers  together. 


Wages 
CHAPTER  Two 

NO  labor  problem  is  more  fundamental 
than  the  question  of  wages,  for  a  man's 
whole  way  of  life  and  that  of  his  chil- 
dren after  him  is  largely  dependent  on 
the  amount  he  earns. 

Many  persons  believe  that  wage-earners  re- 
ceived such  increases  during  the  war  that  low 
pay  ceased  to  be  a  problem  among  them.  Trades 
boomed  by  the  war  or  covered  by  wage  awards 
from  government  conciliation  boards  did  fare 
comparatively  well.  Late  in  1918  a  govern- 
ment board  established  eighty  cents  an  hour  as 
the  minimum  rate  for  skilled  mechanics  in  the 
shipyards,  while  railroad  employees  some 
months  before  received  increases  varying  from 
43  per  cent,  for  those  earning  less  than  $50  a 
month  to  i  per  cent,  for  those  paid  $250.  The 
demand  for  guns  and  ammunition  enabled  ma- 
chinists to  earn  big  money,  and  during  the  two 
years  1917  and  1918  six  successive  wage  in- 
creases by  the  large  steel  companies  amounted  to 
an  85  per  cent,  increase.  Unskilled  laborers 
also  had  a  considerable  share  in  war  prosperity, 
their  wages  rising  from  twenty  cents  an  hour  to 
thirty-five  and  forty. 

[23] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


PUBLIC  WORK. 

Public  work  during  slack  times  helps  the  unemployed  and 
the  co?mnunity. 

But  in  many  other  lines  not  directly  affected 
by  the  war  wages  rose  little,  if  at  all.  Many 
organized  workers  in  the  building  and  printing 
trades  received  less  than  20  per  cent,  increases 
in  wages  from  1912  to  1918.  The  weekly  wage 
of  clerks  in  factory  offices  in  New  York  state 
increased  only  26  per  cent,  between  June,  1914, 
and  October,  1918,  or  from  $19.18  to  $24.11 
weekly.  The  average  weekly  wage  of  shop 
employees  in  a  large  group  of  New  York  fac- 
tories representing  all  forms  of  manufacture 
was  only  $22.22  in  October,  1918. 

[24] 


WAGES 


Meanwhile,  the  high  cost  of  living  was  af- 
fecting all  employees  alike.  The  price  of  food, 
clothing  and  house  furnishings,  to  say  nothing 
of  rent,  rose  to  record-breaking  heights.  The 
National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  a  fed- 
eration of  employers'  associations,  estimated 
conservatively  that  the  cost  of  living  had  gone 


UNEMPLOYED  CLEARING  LAND 

In  the  state  of  Washington  work  of  this  kind  was  success- 
fully carried  on  during  one  depression. 

[25] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


(Donahey,    in    Cleveland   Plain    Dealer.} 

"WORK,  NOT  ALMS" 

The  hands  of  labor  seek  not  charity  but  an  opportunity  to 
produce. 

up  70  per  cent,  in  about  four  years.  The  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  reported  that 
at  the  end  of  1918  wholesale  prices  of  all  com- 
modities combined  were  106  per  cent,  higher 
than  in  1913.  In  December,  1917,  the  Phila- 
delphia Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  esti- 
mated that  $1,200  a  year  or  $23  a  week  was 
necessary  to  provide  a  "living  wage"  for  a  fam- 
ily of  man,  wife,  and  three  children.  Prices 
continued  to  rise  throughout  1918. 

Up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  world  war,  in  1914, 

[26! 


WAGES 


students  of  the  subject  had  decided  that  for  the 
last  quarter  century  wages,  as  measured  by  what 
they  would  buy,  had  been  slowly  but  surely 
falling.  The  decline  amounted  to  about  10  or 
15  per  cent,  over  the  whole  period  and  was 
more  rapid  from  1900  to  1914  than  during  the 
previous  decade.  We  are  forced  to  conclude 
that  all  the  wage  increases  of  the  war  hardly 
changed  the  situation,  as  wages  in  most  cases 
little  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing, and  only  very  rarely  exceeded  it.  Ap- 
parently the  average  workingman  did  not  make 
a  fortune  during  the  war,  and  is  now  hardly 
doing  as  well  as  his  father  did  back  in  the 
'eighties  or  'nineties. 

Payment  of  Wages 

In  the  United  States  labor  laws  affecting 
wages  have,  until  the  last  few  years,  not  set  the 
amount  of  the  wage  directly,  but  have  influ- 
enced its  real  value  by  indirect  methods.  This 
class  of  laws  deals  with  such  matters  as  the 
frequency  and  form  of  wage  payments,  fines 
and  deductions  from  wages,  and  protection  to 
the  worker  if  his  employer  fails  to  pay  the  wage 
due.  The  unfair  practices  which  such  laws  are 
intended  to  prevent  involve  sums  small  in  them- 
selves, perhaps,  but  of  no  little  importance  to 
the  wage-earner,  and  unjust  treatment  well  cal- 
culated to  leave  him  with  a  permanent  griev- 

[27] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

ance  against  society.  Every  organization  which 
has  taken  up  the  collection  of  such  claims  finds 
its  time  filled  with  the  work. 

To  the  workman  with  little  or  nothing  to 
depend  on  but  his  wages,  the  frequency  with 
which  he  is  paid  is  a  matter  of  great  concern. 
The  longer  he  must  wait  for  his  pay,  the  more 
likely  will  he  be  to  run  up  a  bill  at  the  store 
or  to  fall  into  the  loan  shark's  clutches,  and 
the  higher  will  his  cost  of  living  become  and 
the  lower  the  real  value  of  his  wages.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  employer  profits  by  fewer  pay- 
days, as  less  book-keeping  and  less  ready  cash 
are  needed. 

Consequently  all  over  the  world  industrial 
states  have  stepped  in  to  protect  the  worker  by 
requiring  a  regular  pay-day,  sometimes  month- 
ly, sometimes  fortnightly  or  weekly.  About 
two-thirds  of  our  American  states  have  laws 
of  this  kind,  generally  providing  for  wage  pay- 
ments every  two  weeks.  Years  ago  some  courts 
refused  to  uphold  these  laws,  stating  that  they 
were  an  infringement  on  the  "liberty"  of  the 
workman,  but  later  decisions  have  recognized 
the  needs  of  the  worker  and  his  inability  to  se- 
cure prompt  payment  from  a  large  corporation, 
unless  aided  by  legislation.  Several  states  also 
require  that  an  employee  shall  be  paid  during 
working  hours,  which  saves  his  time  and  fre- 
quently prevented  payment  in  bar-rooms,  to  the 

[**] 


WAGES 


enrichment  of  the  barkeeper's  till  and  the  harm 
of  the  worker  and  his  family.  Many  states 
provide  that  an  employee  must  be  paid  as  soon 
as  he  is  discharged  and  that  he  can  collect  in- 
terest charges  for  any  delay.  But  if  a  man 
quits,  the  law  generally  allows  his  wages  to  be 
held  until  the  next  regular  pay-day. 


NOT  "CHEAP  LABOR." 

This  woman  machinist  did  a  maris-sized  job  and  received 
a  union  mans  wage. 

[29] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


Pheidippides  *  did  not 
die  of  heart  failure! 

He  was  poisoned 

poisoned  lay  fatigue. 

/^ 

(  Pheidippides  was  the  messenger 
who  dropped  dead  after  running  26^ 
miles  to  announce  in  Athens  the  victory 
of  the  Greeks  over  the  Persians  at  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  490  B.C.) 

O] 


WAGES 


Carlyle  protested  against  modern  civilization 
because  its  only  bond  of  union  between  man 
and  man  was  cash.  Yet  from  another  point 
of  view  it  is  only  when  wages  are  paid  in  cash 
and  the  wage-earner  is  free  to  buy  what  he 
wants  and  wherever  he  wants  that  he  has  any 
real  freedom.  The  worker  who  must  trade  at 
the  company  store  is  liable  to  pay  excessive 
prices  for  inferior  goods.  He  may  find  false 
items  on  his  bill,  against  which  he  dare  not 
protest  for  fear  of  losing  his  job,  or  on  the 
other  hand  he  may  be  bound  to  his  job  by  a 
debt  he  is  never  quite  able  to  discharge.  Pay- 
ment in  "scrip"  or  "store  orders"  ties  him  to  the 
company  store  or  lowers  his  wages  by  obliging 
him  to  accept  a  discount  in  changing  from  scrip 
to  legal  money. 

Half-a-dozen  states  have  enacted  legislation 
which  attempts  to  forbid  the  whole  system  of 
"company  stores"  and  scrip  payments.  Others 
try  to  regulate  the  system  by  forbidding  exces- 
sive prices  or  higher  charges  to  employees  than 
to  outsiders.  In  a  "company  town,"  however, 
where  the  employing  corporation  is  the  sole 
proprietor,  this  form  of  regulation  is  not  very 
effective.  The  largest  group  of  laws,  found  in 
about  a  dozen  states,  attempts  to  prevent  any 
coercion  of  the  employee  to  accept  company 
scrip  or  to  trade  in  company  stores. 

Fines  for  tardiness  or  other  breaches  of  shop 

[3'J 


FATIGUE 

LOWERS 

RESISTANCE 


Under  a 
'continuous  strain 
your  muscular  strength 
will  eventually 
break 


WAGES 


discipline,  for  bad  work  or  spoilt  material,  de- 
ductions for  drinking-water,  for  needles  or  the 
use  of  machines  may,  in  the  hands  of  an  un- 
scrupulous employer,  amount  to  a  lowering  of 
wages,  and  be  arbitrary  and  unreasonable  in  the 
highest  degree.  A  fertile  ground  for  labor  dis- 
putes is  also  found  in  such  fines  and  deduc- 
tions. About  ten  states  attempt  to  regulate  the 
practice  in  various  ways.  Massachusetts  has 
two  unique  laws,  one  forbidding  the  fining  of 
weavers  except  for  imperfect  work  and  the 
other  limiting  fines  for  tardiness  to  the  amount 
of  wages  which  would  have  been  earned  dur- 
ing the  time  lost.  In  Michigan  no  fines  what- 
ever may  be  imposed,  and  Louisiana  forbids 
them  except  for  wilful  damage  to  the  employ- 
er's property  or  materials.  The  remaining 
states  allow  fines  to  be  deducted  only  accord- 
ing to  a  fixed  procedure  and  with  the  full  con- 
sent of  the  workers.  But,  like  all  laws  which 
try  to  bring  in  the  "consent  of  the  workers,"  the 
value  of  these  provisions  is  doubtful.  Unless 
he  is  in  an  unusually  well  protected  position, 
the  worker  must  consent  if  he  wants  to  hold  his 
job. 

Another  kind  of  law  dealing  with  wage  pay- 
ments is  the  so-called  "mechanic's  lien."  This 
is  one  of  the  oldest  forms  of  American  labor 
legislation,  the  first  such  law  having  been  passed 
in  New  York  in  1830.  It  was  based  on  the 

[33] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

still  older  practice  of  giving  a  contractor  a 
claim  for  his  payment  in  the  house  he  had  built 
and  the  land  it  stood  on.  To  protect  the  worker, 
in  turn,  from  the  irresponsible  contractor  with 
no  property  of  his  own  to  satisfy  wage  claims, 
he  is  given  the  right  to  bring  suit  for  his  wages 
against  the  value  of  the  building  or  land  on 
which  he  was  employed.  Such  a  claim  may  be 
made  in  every  state  in  the  union  and  is  generally 
given  first  preference  above  all  other  claims, 
even  those  of  the  contractor.  Mechanics'  liens 
extend,  in  various  states,  to  labor  performed  on 
public  works,  railroads,  in  mines,  on  the  land, 
and  in  lumbering,  shipbuilding,  sawmilling  and 
other  occupations. 

Minimum  Wage  Laws 

Recently,  England,  Australia,  and  about  a 
dozen  American  states  have  developed  a  wholly 
different  type  of  wage  legislation,  known  as 
minimum  wage  laws,  which  aim  to  regulate  the 
amount  of  the  wage  directly  by  fixing  the  small- 
est sum  which  may  legally  be  paid  the 
worker. 

Australia  is  the  birthplace  of  minimum  wage 
legislation.  Although  it  was  a  new  and  pros- 
perous country,  it  was  discovered  during  the 
'eighties  that  a  number  of  trades  were  paying 
starvation  wages  and  employing  their  workers 
under  miserable  conditions.  Much  public  feel- 

[34] 


WAGES 


ing  against  these  methods  developed  and  after 
several  years'  agitation  the  province  of  Victoria 
in  1896  passed  the  first  minimum  wage  law. 
This  applied  only  to  half-a-dozen  trades  in 
which  wages  were  especially  low,  but  in  1900 
it  was  extended  so  that  it  might  cover  any  oc- 
cupation. Practically  all  the  workers  of  Vic- 
toria except  farm  laborers  now  have  their  wages 
regulated  by  minimum  wage  awards,  and  three 
others  of  the  five  Australian  provinces  have 
passed  similar  legislation. 

In  1909  Great  Britain  passed  a  minimum 
wage  law  known  as  the  "trade  boards  act"  mod- 
elled on  the  Victorian  statute,  and  applying  to 
occupations  paying  "exceptionally  low"  wages, 
under  which  minimum  wages  had  been  fixed 
for  about  400,000  wage-earners  in  eight  dif- 
ferent lines  of  work  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
world  war.  The  law  was  amended  in  1918  so 
that  it  could  be  extended  more,  quickly  and 
to  a  larger  number  of  occupations.  In  1917  a 
bill  guaranteeing  the  price  of  wheat  to  British 
farmers  included  provisions  for  a  minimum 
wage  for  farm  laborers.  Norway  and  France 
have  also  passed  minimum  wage  laws  within 
the  last  two  or  three  years,  applying  to  the 
sweated  workers  in  the  garment  trades. 

Except  in  so  far  as  a  high  proportion  of 
workers  in  many  low-paid  trades  are  women, 
foreign  laws  apply  to  both  sexes  alike.  But  in  the 

[35] 


After  reaching 
•^*-  their  stride,  six 
experienced 
typesetters 
found  that 
their  hourly  output 
diminished 

the  longer 
theyworke 

without 


AT  LUNCH 

AND 

AT  REST 


142 


a  rest 


pero< 


*  ^"  TOTAL  LINES  OF  TYPE 

SET  PER  HOUR  BV 
SEC  EXPERIENCED  TYPESETTERS 

FATIGUE  LOWERS  OUTPUT. 

The  output  of  these  six  typesetters  was  lowest  just  before 
the  lunch  hour  and  in  the  late  afternoon. 


WAGES 


United  States  minimum  wage  legislation  covers 
only  women  and  children.  This  is  in  line  with 
American  precedent  in  other  forms  of  protec- 
tive labor  legislation,  such  as  safety  and  health, 
and  notably  hour  restrictions.  Women  and 
children  are  considered  the  most  helpless  class 
of  workers.  They  are  least  able  to  protect 
themselves.  The  courts  are  more  favorable  to 
protective  legislation  applied  to  women  and  chil- 
dren than  to  men,  and  the  labor  unions  support 
it  while  they  prefer  to  have  men  gain  their  own 
ends  through  organization. 

Thirteen  states — Arizona,  Arkansas,  Califor- 
nia, Colorado,  Kansas,  Massachusetts,  Minneso- 
ta, Nebraska,  North  Dakota,  Oregon,  Utah, 
Washington,  Wisconsin — and  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia had  provided,  up  to  April,  1919,  for  the 
fixing  of  legal  minimum  wages  for  women  and 
children.  A  similar  measure  is  in  force  in  the 
Canadian  province  of  Manitoba. 

The  statutes  are  of  two  kinds,  known  as  "flat 
rate"  and  "wage  board"  laws.  In  the  former, 
found  in  only  a  few  states,  the  minimum  rate 
which  may  be  paid  the  woman  worker  is  spe- 
cified in  the  law.  Thus  Arizona  sets  $10  a  week 
as  the  minimum  for  the  principal  industrial  oc- 
cupations. The  recent  rapid  rise  in  the  cost  of 
living  brought  out  the  weakness  of  the  flat  rate 
law,  for  it  could  not  be  quickly  adjusted  to  price 
changes.  Nor  does  it  take  account  of  differ- 

[37] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

ences  due  to  locality  or  to  the  varying  require- 
ments of  different  occupations. 

Because  of  its  greater  flexibility,  the  wage 
board  type  of  law  found  in  all  the  other  states 
and  abroad  appears  to  be  preferable,  although 
it  sets  up  a  much  more  elaborate  machinery.  A' 
bureau  or  commission  is  created,  to  oversee  the 
administration  of  the  law.  The  commission 
then  forms  wage  boards  in  one  occupation  after 
another,  each  board  representing  the  three  par- 
ties at  interest,  employers,  employees,  and  the 
public.  Minimum  wages  are  fixed  by  these 
boards  for  the  various  occupations,  after  inves- 
tigation and  conference.  Most  laws  require  that 
such  a  minimum  rate  shall  be  "sufficient  to  cover 
the  necessary  cost  of  proper  living,"  that  is  to 
say,  a  "living  wage." 

Two  methods  are  used  to  secure  the  payment 
of  the  wage  fixed.  The  employer's  wage  records 
are  inspected.  Women  who  are  paid  less  than 
the  minimum  may  sue  for  the  unpaid  wage  bal- 
ance. Though  in  other  forms  of  labor  legisla- 
tion it  has  proved  useless  to  expect  workers 
themselves  to  risk  their  jobs  by  complaining,  in 
minimum  wage  cases,  where  fairly  large  wage 
balances  quickly  accumulate,  this  method  has 
proved  successful.  Employers  who  do  not  pay 
the  minimum  may  be  fined,  except  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Nebraska,  where  their  names  may 
merely  be  published. 

[38] 


WAGES 


THE  THE 

12  HOUR  DAY      8  HOUR  DAY 


TWELVE  HOURS  OR  EIGHT  HOURS? 

These  two  men  may  live  next  door  to  each  other  in  almost 
any  city.    Which  is  the  better  citizen? 

[39] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

The  first  American  minimum  wage  law  was 
passed  by  Massachusetts  in  1912,  and  eight  states 
followed  suit  in  1913.  One  reason  why  the 
movement  then  halted  for  a  time  was  probably 
because  from  1914  to  1917  the  courts  were  de- 
bating the  constitutionality  of  the  legislation. 
A  test  case  covering  the  Oregon  law  was  decided 
favorably  in  the  latter  year  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  The  court  was,  in  fact,  evenly 
divided  on  the  subject,  so  that  a  previous  favor- 
able decision  by  the  state  supreme  court  of  Ore- 
gon remained  in  force.  The  Oregon  court 
treated  the  law  as  closely  akin  to  hour  legisla- 
tion, being  for  the  same  reasons  "within  the  po- 
lice power  of  the  state  and  .  .  .  tending  to 
guard  the  public  morals  and  the  public  health." 
Since  the  Oregon  case,  the  supreme  courts  of 
other  states  have  upheld  the  laws  within  their 
own  jurisdictions.  The  right  of  the  government 
to  fix  minimum  wages  by  law  for  at  least  women 
and  minors  may  accordingly  be  said  to  be  es- 
tablished in  the  United  States. 

Many  dire  and  often-times  contradictory  pre- 
dictions of  the  effects  of  minimum  wage  laws 
are  made  whenever  they  are  proposed.  It  is 
claimed  on  one  hand  that  it  is  not  possible  to 
increase  wages  by  law.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  alleged  that  "the  minimum  will  become  the 
maximum"  and  that  higher-paid  workers  will 
be  reduced  when  lower-paid  ones  are  raised,  that 

[40] 


MODERN  ORGANIZATION  OF  INDUSTRY 

divides   labor  more   and    more  into 

Te  p  e  t  i  t  j  o  n  5^  1 9  JF  ^.s  j  n  g  1  e^ ,  p  Q£>  c  e  s  s  e  s 


me  an  s  "::  i  ri'c  r  e  as  e  cR 
workers 


M  VENT! VE  GENIUS 

s  pbnstantlv "•  Increasing  the^speed 

-  ...  °        -M        if    .     Q  •• 

of  ma.;.-  ... .         .i«-  i  ~^ 


Every   improyement  in  the^machina 

means  greater  speeding  up 
of  the  worker 

The  Logica!  Remedy 

,for  these  new, strains 

TO  SHORTEN  THE  WORKING  DAY 


(Courtesy   New    York    Women's  Joint   Legislative    Conference.) 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

low-paid  workers  will  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment altogether  if  their  wages  must  be  increased, 
that  employers  will  become  bankrupt  or  move 
out  of  the  state  if  forced  to  pay  more  wages,  and 
that  the  efficiency  of  the  workers  will  suffer  if 
their  wages  are  guaranteed.  American  experi- 
ence of  the  effect  of  minimum  wage  awards  is 
still  scanty,  but  in  those  states  where  awards 
have  been  longest  in  force,  as  well  as  in  other 
countries,  these  fears  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
realized.  Enforcement  is  not  perfect,  but  a  con- 
siderable rise  in  wages  is  noted.  The  average 
weekly  wage  of  women  in  Oregon  stores  was  8.6 
per  cent,  higher  in  spite  of  a  business  depression 
which  caused  an  8  per  cent,  falling  off  in  sales. 

The  charge  that  the  wages  of  higher-paid 
workers  are  reduced  is  not  borne  out  anywhere, 
while  after  the  first  readjustment  no  lasting  in- 
crease of  unemployment  is  noticeable.  In  Aus- 
tralia, where  minimum  wages  are  generally  ap- 
plied, employers  make  a  good  many  charges  of 
decreased  efficiency,  but  in  England  and  the 
United  States  the  opposite  result  is  reported.  As 
for  the  financial  effect  on  employers,  wages  are 
not  raised  so  greatly  that  the  extra  cost 
of  the  product  is  a  large  item.  In  Oregon  stores 
the  increased  cost  of  labor  was  only  three  mills 
on  each  dollar  of  sales. 

This  last  fact  helps  us  define  the  exact  effect 
of  minimum  wage  laws.  They  do  not,  after  all, 

[42] 


CYCLE  of  the 

WORKING  DAY 

Eight  hours  for  work! 

Eight  hours  for  sleep ! 

Eight  hours  for  home 

and  citizenship! 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

transform  society.  The  sums  fixed  as  living 
wages  for  women  in  this  country  vary  from  $8 
or  $9  weekly  a  few  years  ago  to  $13.20  in  Wash- 
ington and  $15.60  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
under  war-time  high  prices.  But  the  standards 
set  represent  some  gain  to  the  lowest-paid  work- 
ers and  do,  to  that  extent,  relieve  the  situation 
for  the  poorest,  hardest-pressed  section  of  the 
most  helpless  part  of  the  wage-earners. 


l44l 


Hours 

CHAPTER   THREE 

IF  there  is  one  lesson  the  great  war  pounded 
home  to  the  captains  of  industry,  it  is  that 
too  long  hours  do  not  pay.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  struggle,  when  France  and  England 
leaped,  only  half  prepared,  to  the  defense  of  their 
liberties,  they  were  forced  to  signal  "full  speed 
ahead"  to  their  munitions  producers.     But  as 
the  spurt  settled  down  into  the  long  steady  grind 
of  a  four-year  contest,  it  was  noticed  that  pro- 
duction of  essential  war  material  was  falling  off. 
Not  only  was  the  output  lessened,  but  its  quality 
was  lowered.    There  was  waste  of  material  and 
power  through  broken  time.    The  workers  were 
growing  dispirited  and  lacked  "pep." 

The  British  government  set  a  commission  of 
experts  to  investigate,  and  they  very  soon  found 
out  the  cause  of  the  trouble — overwork.  All 
toil  and  no  play  was  making  Jack  and  Jill  (for 
there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women 
concerned)  into  dull  and  inefficient  producers. 
The  commission  recommended  shorter  hours, 
intervals  for  rest,  one  full  day  off  a  week.  When 
these  were  tried,  the  output  of  shells  and  guns 
went  up  again. 

It  was  the  old  story,  often  told,  seldom  learned, 
repeating  itself.    A  tired  man  is  a  poisoned  man, 

[45] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

poisoned  by  the  waste  products  of  his  own  ac- 
tivity. He  cannot  do  good  or  profitable  work 
until  the  bodily  poisons  produced  by  toil  have 
been  removed  by  suitable  intervals  of  rest. 

Moreover,  for  citizenship  as  well  as  for  pro- 
duction, the  free  worker  in  a  democracy  needs 
suitable  leisure  for  the  enrichment  of  his  family 
life  and  intelligent  attention  to  current  questions. 
Had  all  the  peoples  of  the  civilized  world  been 
conducting  their  national  affairs  on  a  well-in- 
formed democratic  basis,  the  war  which  cost 
over  7,000,000  human  lives  would  never  have 
occurred. 

For  America's  women  in  industry,  who  are 
among  the  mothers  of  the  coming  generation, 
there  is  special  need  for  protection  against  long 
hours.  A  strong  and  vigorous  race  demands 
mothers  whose  energies  are  not  sapped  by  a 
work-day  dragged  out  to  unhealthful  extremes, 
or  by  industrial  toil  during  the  night  hours  that 
should  be  given  to  rest  and  sleep.  And  the 
children,  too,  if  they  are  to  carry  on  the  work 
of  democracy  and  civilization,  must  be  saved  in 
their  tender  years  from  toil  too  exhausting  for 
their  forming  minds  and  bodies. 

First  Modern  Factory  Law 

The  first  modern  factory  law  dealt  with  the 
hours  of  children  in  British  cotton  mills.  Be- 
ginning abcut  1760  people  ceased  to  spin  and 

[46] 


HOURS 


weave  entirely  by  hand,  but  took  up  the  manu- 
facture of  cloth  by  power-driven  machinery  in 
large  factories.  In  this  transformation,  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  our  modern  indus- 
try, many  pauper  children  were  apprenticed  to 
the  owners  of  the  cotton  factories.  Philanthro- 
pists soon  noticed  that  these  children  were  miser- 


RIVETER  AT  WORK. 

The  great  speed  demanded  by  some  occupations  is  a  strain 
that  can  be  counteracted  by  short  hours. 

[47] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

ably  treated,  overworked,  and  given  no  chance 
for  education.  An  act,  passed  by  the  English 
Parliament  in  1802,  among  other  provisions, 
limited  their  hours  to  twelve  a  day.  Inadequate 
as  this  standard  now  seems,  it  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  the  long  line  of  special  laws  limit- 
ing the  hours  during  which  young  workers  may 
be  employed. 

The  first  such  law  in  the  United  States  was 
passed  by  Massachusetts  in  1842,  and  established 
a  ten-hour  day  for  all  children  under  twelve 
working  in  factories.  Along  with  forbidding  all 
work  for  wages  by  children  under  a  certain  age, 
provisions  restricting  the  hours  of  the  youngest 
workers  have  been  developed,  until  to-day  there 
is  general  agreement  that  legislation,  at  the  very 
least,  besides  keeping  children  under  fourteen 
out  of  the  factory  and  in  the  school-room,  should 
prevent  night  work  by  all  boys  and  girls  under 
sixteen  and  limit  their  working  hours  to  eight. 
Beginning  with  Illinois  in  1903,  this  standard 
has  been  reached  by  about  half  the  states,  in- 
cluding the  majority  of  those  of  industrial  im- 
portance. Of  the  remaining  states,  about  half 
have  nine-hour  laws  for  children  and  the  rest 
allow  a  work-day  of  ten  hours  or  more.  In 
some  of  the  southern  cotton-mill  states,  however, 
it  is  legal  for  children  to  work  at  night  and 
eleven  hours  a  day,  and  such  poor  laws  as  exist 
are  reported  not  to  be  well  enforced. 

48 


HOURS 


In  an  effort  to  bring  the  more  backward  states 
up  to  better  standards,  two  federal  child  labor 
laws  have  been  passed.  In  the  earlier  one,  which 
became  law  in  1916,  Congress  forbade  the  trans- 
portation in  interstate  commerce,  that  is  to  say, 
from  state  to  state,  of  goods  on  which  children 


(.Copyright,    Underwood  and    Underwood.) 

MARBLE  POLISHER. 

The  monotony  of  repeating  one  process  over  and  over  again 
is  wearing  on  the  workman's  nerves, 

[49] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


(Copyright,    Underwood   and    Underwood.) 

STOKING. 

Men  who  are  doing  hard  physical  labor  often  have  to  work 
in  short  shifts.     Stokers   work  for  four  hours. 

between  fourteen  and  sixteen  had  worked  at 
night  or  more  than  eight  hours  a  day.  The 
United  States  Supreme  Court  set  aside  the  law, 
however,  declaring  that  such  regulation  was  not 
within  the  power  of  Congress.  Congress  then 
attacked  the  evil  in  another  way  in  the  war  rev- 
enue bill  of  1919.  A  tax  of  10  per  cent,  of  the 
net  profits  for  the  year  is  imposed  on  all  establish- 
ments in  which  any  child  between  fourteen  and 
sixteen  has  worked  at  night  or  more  than  eight 
hours  a  day.  The  measure  went  into  effect  in 
April,  1919. 

[so] 


HOURS 


Women's  Hour  Legislation 

Next  to  children,  women  receive  more  pro- 
tection from  hour  laws  than  any  other  class  of 
workers.  Though  the  constitutionality  of  lim- 
itations on  women's  working  hours  is  now  es- 
tablished, years  of  struggle  with  the  courts  was 
necessary  before  this  was  certain.  In  1895  the 
Illinois  Supreme  Court  set  aside  an  eight-hour 
law  for  women  workers  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  an  infringement  on  the  "liberty"  of  a  woman 
to  work  as  long  as  she  saw  fit.  For  some  years 
afterwards  decisions  by  state  courts  varied.  Then 
in  1908  came  the  test  case  in  which  the  Oregon 
women's  ten-hour  law  came  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  Louis  D.  Brandeis, 
who  later  became  a  member  of  the  court,  and 
Miss  Josephine  Goldmark,  prepared  a  famous 
brief  in  defense  of  the  law.  This  brief  em- 
phasized not  so  much  legal  technicalities  as  the 
harmful  effects  of  excessive  hours  on  the  health 
of  women.  The  court  upheld  the  law  as  a 
health  measure.  "As  healthy  mothers  are  es- 
sential to  vigorous  offspring,"  the  judges  said, 
"the  physical  well-being  of  women  becomes  an 
object  of  public  interest  and  care  in  order  to 
preserve  the  strength  and  vigor  of  the  race." 
Shortly' afterwards  the  Illinois  court  sustained 
a  new  law  for  a  ten-hour  day.  In  1915  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  took  a  further 

[50 


HOURS 


progressive  step   in  upholding  the   California 
eight-hour  law  for  women. 

All  but  six  states  had  laws  limiting  the  daily 
or  weekly  hours  of  women's  work  at  the  begin- 
ning of  1919.  The  ten-hour  day,  found  in  more 
than  a  dozen  states,  was  still  the  most  frequent, 
but  the  eight-hour  day  was  in  force  in  eight 
western  states  and  a  nine-hour  day  in 
thirteen  including  the  important  industrial  areas 
of  New  York,  Ohio,  and  Missouri.  A  few 
states  have  daily  limits  of  from  ten  and  a  quar- 
ter to  twelve  hours.  Most  states  fixed  weekly 
as  well  as  daily  limits,  which  varied  from  forty- 
eight  to  sixty  hours. 

Night  Work 

The  United  States  is  among  the  most  back- 
ward of  modern  industrial  countries  in  check- 
ing night  work  by  women.  In  1906  an  inter- 
national conference  on  women's  night  work  was 
called  at  Berne,  Switzerland.  Fourteen  leading 
European  countries  were  represented.  A  mass 
of  evidence  on  the  physical  and  moral  dan- 
gers of  industrial  night  work  for  women,  gath- 
ered in  five  years'  investigation  by  the  Inter- 
national Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  was 
put  before  the  conference.  The  various  coun- 
tries signed  an  international  treaty  by  which 
they  agreed,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  pass  legisla- 

[53] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


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HOURS 


tion  forbidding  night  work  by  women.    By  1912 
they  had  practically  all  done  so. 

About  a  dozen  American  states  have  forbid- 
den night  work  for  women  in  certain  occupa- 
tions, but  only  a  few  have  extended  the  prohibi- 
tion to  any  large  group  of  employments.  In 
1907  the  highest  state  court  of  New  York  set 
aside  a  law  of  this  kind,  while  in  1913,  making 
special  mention  of  the  facts  presented  to  it  in  a 
Brandeis-Goldmark  brief,  it  unanimously  re- 
versed itself  and  upheld  a  similar  law.  Four 
or  five  additional  states  attempt  to  discourage 
night  work  by  limiting  it  to  a  shorter  period 
than  day  work. 

Regulation  of  Men's  Hours 

Laws  restricting  men's  hours  in  general  pri- 
vate employment  are  much  less  common — in  fact 
in  1919  only  two  American  states  had  such  legis- 
lation. Mississippi  and  Oregon  both  had  ten- 
hour  laws  covering  all  factory  employment. 

One  reason  for  American  hesitancy  to  legis- 
late on  this  subject  has  been  the  doubtful  attitude 
of  the  courts.  After  the  famous  Lochner  case 
in  1905,  when  the  highest  court  of  the  land  set 
aside  a  statute  giving  a  ten-hour  day  to  New 
York  bakers,  many  people  believed  that  general 
laws  affecting  the  hours  of  men  were  not  con- 
stitutional in  America.  But  in  1917,  with  many 

[55] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


WOMEN'S   LEGAL  WORKING   HOURS. 

The  hour  limits  indicated  are  those  which  affect  a  large 
proportion  of  female  industrial  workers. 

more  scientific  facts  available  as  to  the  bad  ef- 
fects of  long  hours,  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  upheld  the  Oregon  ten-hour  law. 

In  spite  of  existing  hesitancy,  there  are  a  good 
many  hour  laws  for  men  covering  lines  of  work 
which  for  one  reason  or  other  are  supposed  to  be 
especially  dangerous,  and  legislation  on  which 
can  therefore  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  courts". 
With  railroad  employees,  excessive  hours  mean 
not  only  danger  to  their  own  health  and  safety, 
but  also  a  greater  risk  of  accidents  which  may 
endanger  the  lives  and  property  of  passengers. 
Almost  every  state  in  the  union,  as  well  as  the 
United  States  for  interstate  employees,  has 

56 


HOURS 


placed  hour  restrictions  on  two  classes  of  rail- 
road workers — firemen,  engineers,  conductors 
and  others  engaged  in  the  actual  handling  of 
trains,  and  those  who  direct  train  movements, 
such  as  telegraphers  and  train  dispatchers.  For 
those  handling  trains,  sixteen  hours,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  at  least  eight  or  ten  hours  of  rest,  is 
generally  set  as  the  limit  of  a  day's  work.  Teleg- 
raphers may  be  restricted  to  eight  hours  under 
a  three-shift  system  if  employment  is  continuous, 
or  at  small  stations  to  twelve  or  thirteen  hours 
followed  by  a  rest  period  of  eight  or  ten  hours. 
But  the  necessary  permission  to  work  overtime 
in  "emergencies"  leaves  a  loophole  through 
which  these  laws  may  be  evaded,  and  their  en- 
forcement, though  improving,  leaves  something 
to  be  desired. 

About  a  dozen  states  have  scattering  laws  af- 
fecting men's  hours  in  other  special  lines  of 
work.  Laundries,  electric  plants,  firing  of  sta- 
tionary boilers,  cement  mills,  saw  mills,  brick- 
yards, textile  mills,  and  drug  and  grocery  stores, 
have  all  appeared  to  some  legislators  to  demand 
special  protection  against  the  dangers  of  over- 
work. 

Eight-Hour  Day 

The  constitutionality  of  statutes  which  limit 
men's  hours  to  eight  a  day  is  still  uncertain.  An 
Alaska  court  has  set  aside  a  measure  of  this  kind, 

[57] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


"WHY  DIDN'T  HE  SHUT  THE  MOTOR  OFF?" 

Many  serious  accidents  are  the  result  of  trying  to  adjust 
or  reach  across  a  running  machine. 

but  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  not 
passed  on  a  test  case.  Public  opinion  in  the 
United  States  has  not  yet  advanced  to  the  stand- 
ards of  Great  Britain,  where  an  industrial  con- 
gress of  employers  and  employees,  called  by  the 
government  early  in  1919,  recommended  a  law 
for  a  universal  forty-eight  hour  week.  The 
French  Chamber  of  Deputies  about  the  same 
time  declared  for  an  eight-hour  day. 

Public  employees,  indeed,  have  frequently 
secured  the  eight-hour  day  by  legislative 
action.  A  number  of  states  and  territories 
have  an  eight-hour  day  for  all  employees  on 
public  works  whether  carried  on  directly  by 
state  or  city  or  undertaken  by  contractors.  In 

[58] 


HOURS 


other  states  the  laws  are  more  comprehensive, 
applying  to  all  employees  and  not  merely  those 
on  public  works.  The  federal  government  has 
an  eight-hour  law  covering  all  its  own  employees 
and  many,  but  not  all,  workers  on  contracts  for 
government  supplies.  Even  during  the  war 
emergency  the  eight-hour  standard  was  in  large 
part  maintained,  though  in  certain  cases  over- 
time at  higher  rates  was  allowed.  Certain  groups 
of  post  office  employees  have  also  secured  spe- 
cial eight-hour  legislation,  and  firemen  in  sev- 
eral cities  have  obtained  two-platoon  or  twelve- 
hour  shift  legislation,  and  are  agitating  a  three- 
platoon  system. 

The  latest  hour  law  for  railroad  employees  is 
the  Adamson  law.  Rushed  through  Congress 
in  1916  to  avert  a  nation-wide  railroad  strike, 
this  act  established  eight  hours  as  the  standard 
for  pay.  There  was  much  discussion  as  to 
whether  the  law  would  really  reduce  hours  or 
whether  it  was  merely  a  device  to  raise  wages. 
Official  investigation  of  the  operation  of  the 
law  showed  both  results.  Some  trainmen,  espe- 
cially in  railroad  yards,  had  their  hours  short- 
ened; many  received  higher  wages. 

The  eight-hour  day  in  mines,  where  dangers  to 
health  and  safety  are  many,  has  been  secured 
by  law  in  most  of  the  important  mining  states. 
A  six-hour  day  is  now  the  goal  of  organized 
miners  both  in  England  and  America.  One  of 

[59] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


SAFETY  IN  THE  FOUNDRY. 

Protective  clothing,  goggles,  and  safety  ladles  are  necessary 
safeguards  for  foundry  workers. 

the  most  scientific  hour  laws  covers  workers  in 
comp  ressed  air  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 
Pennsylvania.  Modern  tunnel  and  skyscraper 
construction  requires  a  great  deal  of  work  of  this 
kind.  The  number  of  hours'  work  allowed  daily 
varies  according  to  the  amount  of  pressure,  as 
does  the  length  of  the  interval  dividing  the  day's 
work  into  two  equal  parts.  Starting  with  an 

[60] 


HOURS 


eight-hour  day  followed  by  a  half-hour  rest  if 
the  air  pressure  is  twenty-one  pounds  above  nor- 
mal, only  an  hour  and  a  half  of  work  is  allowed 
when  working  under  pressure  of  forty-five  to 
fifty  pounds,  and  the  rest  interval  must  be  five 
hours. 

Another  reason  besides  the  doubtful  attitude 
of  the  courts  why  the  progress  of  hour  laws  for 
men  has  halted  in  America  is  that  organized 
labor  has  not  been  altogether  favorable.  Fifty 
years  ago,  when  British  workmen  were  demand- 
ing: 

"Eight  hours  for  work,  eight  hours  for  play, 
Eight  hours  for  sleep  and  eight  bob  a  day," 

the  National  Labor  Union,  a  predecessor  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Ira  Steward  started  a  nation-wide 
movement  for  a  universal  eight-hour  day  by  law. 
But  the  laws  then  secured  for  private  employ- 
ments were  not  enforceable,  and  during  the  past 
generation  trade  unionists  have  supported  hour 
reductions  through  collective  bargaining  rather 
than  through  legislation.  Very  recently,  how- 
ever, there  are  signs  that  this  point  of  view 
is  changing.  The  Adamson  law  had  the  sup- 
port of  the  railroad  brotherhoods. 

Meanwhile,  the  eight-hour  day,  through  trade 
agreements,  arbitration  awards,  and  voluntary 
concessions  by  employers,  has  made  great  ad- 

[61] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


BOX  YOUR  BELTS. 

Belting  is  dangerous  unless  well  shielded.    Many  men  have 
been  killed  or  maimed  for  lack  of  safeguards. 

vances  during  the  last  few  years.  In  1914,  out 
of  6,600,000  wage-earners  enumerated  by  the 
Census  of  Manufacturers,  only  7.9  per  cent.,  or 
520,000,  worked  in  factories  where  the  eight- 
hour  day  prevailed.  Some  230,000  were  work- 
ing seventy-two  hours  or  more  weekly,  many  of 
whom  were  toiling  twelve  hours  a  day,  seven 
days  a  week,  in  the  so-called  continuous  indus- 
tries such  as  steel  plants,  paper  mills,  power  sta- 
tions, and  glass  and  chemical  works.  Men  in 
these  establishments  generally  change  from  day 
to  night  shift  weekly  or  fortnightly,  working 


HOURS 


twenty-four  hours  without  rest  at  that  time.  The 
only  practicable  alternative  to  the  twelve-hour 
day  in  these  continuous  industries  is  the  eight- 
hour  system,  with  three  shifts.  So  glaring  are 
the  evils  of  the  twelve-hour  day  that  an  inter- 
national convention  in  London  in  June,  1912, 
favored  international  action  to  secure  eight-hour 
shifts  in  continuous  industries.  Such  a  law  has 
been  proposed  for  Massachusetts  paper-mills, 
but  no  measure  of  the  kind  is  yet  in  force  in 
the  United  States. 

From  1915  through  the  first  six  months  of 
1918,  however,  it  is  officially  estimated  that  no 
fewer  than  1,448,000  workers  gained  the  eight- 
hour  day.  The  movement  began  in  Bridge- 
port in  1915,  where  a  series  of  strikes  swept 
through  this  hive  of  war  industries,  not  ceasing 
until  the  town  was  practically  on  an  eight-hour 
basis.  The  Adamson  law  put  400,000  railroad 
men  on  an  eight-hour  basis  in  September,  1916. 
After  America  entered  the  war  the  eight-hour 
movement  was  greatly  aided  by  the  favorable 
attitude  of  the  government.  "The  eight-hour  day 
is  an  established  policy  of  the  country,"  said 
President  Wilson's  personal  mediation  commis- 
sion. The  National  War  Labor  Board,  indus- 
try's supreme  court  for  the  settlement  of  labor 
disputes  during  the  war,  was  equally  favorable 
to  the  principle.  Important  industries  for  which 
an  eight-hour  day  was  established  by  award  of 

[63] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


RUNNING  A  LATHE. 

The  recent  entrance  of  women  into  machine  shops  calls 
for  an  increase  in  safety  measures. 

a  government  board  included  many  machine 
shops  and  munition  plants,  packing-houses,  ship- 
yards, the  lumber  industry  of  the  northwest,  and 
news  print  paper  mills.  Several  large  steel  mills 
set  up  the  eight-hour  day  voluntarily  in  the 
early  months  of  1918.  In  the  beginning  of  1919 
an  epidemic  of  eight-hour  day  strikes  swept 

[64] 


HOURS 


through  eastern  textile  mills.  The  strikers  in 
most  cases  won  the  reduction  in  hours,  but  some- 
times had  to  accept  a  reduction  in  pay. 

Many  of  the  government  wage  awards,  how- 
ever, set  up  not  the  "straight,"  but  the  "basic" 
eight-hour  day,  overtime  beyond  eight  hours 
at  additional  pay  being  freely  allowed.  When 
the  war  emergency  was  over,  it  was  planned  to 
abolish  the  overtime.  The  basic  eight-hour  day 
is  of  course  a  compromise  of  the  eight-hour  prin- 
ciple, and  it  frequently  happens  that  the  work- 
ers remain  content  with  overtime  pay  and  no 
real  reduction  in  hours  takes  place.  Carpenters 
on  government  construction  work  in  Brooklyn 
even  struck  for  a  return  of  overtime  when  it  was 
cut  down  shortly  after  the  armistice,  saying  that 
they  needed  the  extra  money  to  meet  Liberty 
Bond  payments. 

A  counter-current,  which  aims  at  a  real  de- 
crease in  hours,  is  the  trade-union  and  radical 
movement  for  a  forty-four-hour  week.  As  the 
eight-hour  day  becomes  more  common,  this 
movement  to  secure  a  Saturday  half-holiday  is 
gaining  impetus.  It  was  the  crucial  issue  in  a 
New  York  strike  won  in  January,  1919,  by  a 
large  union  in  the  men's  clothing  industry,  the 
Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers. 

One  Day's  Rest  in  Seven 
Even  with  moderate  daily  hours,  the  worker 
cannot  maintain  his  health  and  efficiency  year 

[65] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


IN  A  MUNITIONS  PLANT. 

Powerful  punch  presses  that  cut  through  a  metal  plate  at 
the  touch  of  a  lever.  No  place  to  be  careless. 

after  year  without  a  weekly  day  of  complete  rest. 
The  British  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Com- 
mittee, striving  to  build  up  the  Output  of  muni- 
tions of  war,  recommended  the  abolition  of  all 
Sunday  work. 

Yet  under  modern  conditions,  much  work 
must  continue  every  day  in  the  week.  Besides 
the  continuous  industries,  in  which  for  techni- 
cal reasons  the  plants  must  operate  constantly, 
street  cars  cannot  stop  one  day  a  week,  milk 
must  be  delivered,  power  plants  must  continue 
to  operate.  In  Minnesota  in  1909,  14  per  cent, 
of  all  men  workers  were  reported  employed 

66 


HOURS 


seven  days. a  week,  while  in  New  York  the  fol- 
lowing year  over  20  per  cent,  of  179,000  trade 
unionists  in  a  number  of  specified  industries 
were  engaged  in  seven-day  labor.  The  old-time 
Sunday  laws,  designed  mainly  to  protect  the 
Sabbath  as  a  holy  day,  fail  to  meet  these  new 
conditions. 

For  this  reason,  a  new  type  of  law  has  been 
developed,  providing  one  day  of  rest  in  seven 
for  workers,  but  not  specifying  the  day  on  which 
it  must  be  taken.  Necessary  employees  can, 
under  such  laws,  remain  at  work  on  Sunday  and 
take  their  rest-day  during  some  other  part  of 
the  week.  In  some  cases  where  a  plant  must 
operate  in  full  force  every  day,  the  employer 
may  have  to  hire  one-sixth  more  men,  so  as  to 
let  one-seventh  of  the  total  force  off  each  day 
of  the  week.  The  expense  of  this  plan  will  tend 
to  cut  down  unnecessary  Sunday  work,  and  the 
Sabbath  will  be  better  protected  than  it  is  now. 
Effective  laws  of  this  kind,  applying  to  workers 
in  stores  and  factories,  are  in  force  in  New  York 
and  Massachusetts.  Investigations  indicate  that 
without  undue  hardship  to  industry  thousands 
of  workers  formerly  employed  seven  days  a 
week  have  thus  been  given  a  rest-day.  The 
courts  have  universally  been  favorable  to  the 
old-time  Sunday  laws,  and  the  highest  court  of 
New  York  state  took  a  similar  position  on  the 
new  type  of  law. 

[67] 


Safety 


CHAPTER  FOUR 


IF  work  is  to  be  a  means  of  life  and  not  of 
death,  the  places  where  it  is  carried  on  must 
be  made  safe.  In  the  early  days  when  manu- 
facture was  literally  "making  by  hand,"  and 
was  carried  on  by  each  craftsman  in  his  own 
home  or  small  shop,  this  was  a  simple  matter. 
To-day,  when  hundreds  or  thousands  of  opera- 
tives toil  under  one  roof  amid  high-power  and 
rapidly  moving  machinery,  with  shafting  and 
belting  whirring  overhead,  with  the  tremendous 
forces  of  steam  and  electricity  straining  at  their 
leash,  and  under  conditions  over  which  final  con- 

Fatal    Industrial    Accidents 

Estimate  forjiie  United   States  for  1915 


Mtai&ertf     Maf/m 


Oar  in  ZSOOO  Jbttf  /mtui/ru/  jtxrfeaft  / 


v  U*M  Jfjtol.  dm/  TOO.OOO  ler/oui  /a 


(Chart   prepared  by  Prudential  Insurance   Company   of  America.) 

[69] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


THESE  GEARS  ARE  MUZZLED. 

The    teeth    on    this   drilling    machine    will    catch    no    one's 
limbs  or  clothing. 

trol  rests  with  the  employer,  industrial  safety  has 
become  a  very  much  more  complex  and  impor- 
tant matter. 

Accident  Reporting 

Not  until  Massachusetts  took  the  lead  in  1886 
did  any  American  state  have  on  its  statute  books 
a  law  requiring  industrial  accidents  to  be  re- 
ported. Slowly  these  laws  spread  to  other  states, 
but  their  results  were  not  satisfying.  Employers 
appeared  reluctant  to  give  out  such  information, 
and  the  state  officials  very  rarely  took  the  trou- 
ble to  prosecute.  Speaking  at  one  time  of  eight 

[70] 


SAFETY 


states  which  had  reporting  laws,  a  federal  in- 
vestigator said  that  "In  none  of  them  is  there 
any  pretense  that  anything  like  complete  re- 
turns of  accidents  are  obtained." 

Decided  improvement  was  wrought  in  this  sit- 
uation by  the  adoption  of  workmen's  compensa- 
tion for  industrial  accidents.  When  it  was  to 
somebody's  interest — in  this  case  the  injured 
workman's — to  report  the  accident  to  the  au- 
thorities, the  number  of  recorded  casualties  ap- 
proached much  more  nearly  to  the  number 
which  actually  occurred.  In  New  York,  for 
instance,  where  the  reporting  and  checking  up 
system  was  among  the  best  in  the  country,  the 
number  of  accidents  listed  by  the  labor  depart- 
ment rose  from  94,000  the  year  before  work- 
men's compensation  was  in  force  to  225,000  the 
year  after. 

Even  yet  the  number  of  industrial  injuries  oc- 
curring throughout  the  country  is  not  known 
precisely.  An  estimate  issued  by  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  places  the  num- 
ber of  fatal  accidents  at  25,000  annually,  and 
injuries  resulting  in  disability  of  more  than  four 
weeks  at  700,000.  Since  about  three-quarters 
of  all  accidents  requiring  medical  attendance 
result  in  recovery  within  two  weeks,  the  total 
number  of  injuries  in  American  industry  must 
be  close  to  3,000,000  annually.  During  the  in- 
tense activity  of  the  war  period  this  figure  was 
probably  increased. 

[71] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


FIRST  AID  ROOM. 

Up-to-date  factories  are  equipped  with  first  aid  rooms  where 
qualified  physicians  and  nurses  care  for  injured  employees. 

Mining,  especially  metal  mining,  is  the  most 
hazardous  occupation,  resulting  in  the  largest 
number  of  deaths  in  proportion  to  numbers  em- 
ployed. Railroading,  electrical  work,  and  quar- 
rying are  high  on  the  list.  In  agriculture,  the 
introduction  of  power  machinery  has  added  to 
the  earlier  risks  due  to  live  animals,  while  gen- 
eral factory  work,  in  relation  to  the  occupations 
just  named,  is  comparatively  safe. 

Factories  and  Workshops 
Industrial  safety 'laws  in  the  United   States 

[72] 


SAFETY 


most  frequently  deal  with  conditions  in  factories 
and  workshops.  Besides  fixing  a  general  min- 
imum age  of  fourteen  years  for  employment  of 
children  in  general  factory  work,  many  states 
set  a  minimum  of  sixteen  years  for  more  dan- 
gerous processes,  and  in  some  states  an  additional 
two  years'  maturity  is  required  for  entrance  to 
a  number  of  especially  hazardous  occupations. 
The  sixteen-year  limit  usually  applies  to  such 
employments  as  cleaning  and  oiling  machinery, 
adjusting  belts,  and  operating  machine  saws  and 
grinding  or  stamping  apparatus.  Among,  the 
occupations  for  which  an  eighteen-year  mini- 
mum is  required  are  work  in  mines,  at  blast  fur- 
naces, or  on  railroads,  outside  erection  of  elec- 
tric wires,  and  manufacture  of  explosives.  Some 
states  give  the  board  of  health  or  labor  depart- 
ment power  to  add  to  these  lists.  Restrictions 
of  this  sort  have  repeatedly  been  upheld  by  the 
courts  as  a  valid  exercise  of  the  police  power, 
and  in  some  states  illegal  employment  of  a  child 
deprives  the  employer,  in  case  of  accident,  of 
the  defenses  of  "assumption  of  risk"  and  "con- 
tributory negligence."  The  most  important  re- 
cent enactment  in  the  field  of  child  labor  is  the 
law  passed  by  Congress  in  1919,  which  lays  a 
prohibitive  tax  of  10  per  cent,  of  the  yearly  net 
profits  on  all  factories  employing  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age,  or  children  between  four- 
teen and  sixteen  for  more  than  eight  hours  a 

[73] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


day  or  six  days  a  week  or  at  night,  and  upon 
all  mines  or  quarries  employing  children  under 
sixteen. 

Furnishing  a  reasonably  safe  place  to  work 
in  is  a  duty  long  recognized  as  resting  on  the 
employer.  With  the  growth  of  large  scale  pro- 
duction it  has  been  found  necessary  to  establish 


WARNING 


THIS*  5WIICHB  ftfif  H6T  TO  81  THR8WI  IN 
WHIU  OAN6CR  SlSRftl  IS  0*  SAML  THIS* 
OAKS  £8  SISHAIS  ARE  TO  81  REMOVES  081Y8* 
THE  PIRSOHPUCWS  SAME  81  SWITCH. 

5  T 15  THf  0U1V  0f  EVERY  INMOYU  TO  REPORT 
AKY  VIOIATIOJI  8f  THIS  OROEfi  T8  H!S  F&«f  RAW 


NOTE  THE  SIGN. 

likely  to  get  a  shock  from  the  switch  in  this 
switch-box. 


[74] 


SAFETY 


certain  codes  to  make  this  principle  effective. 
The  first  American  law  requiring  factory  safe- 
guards was  passed  by  Massachusetts  in  1877. 
Now  practically  every  state  has  a  factory  and 
workshop  act  prescribing  minimum  conditions 
of  safety. 

The  point  most  frequently  dealt  with  is  safe- 
guarding machinery.  Mechanism  for  transmit- 
ting power,  such  as  belting,  shafting,  and  gear- 
ing, as  well  as  the  active  parts  of  machines,  like 
saws,  planers,  mangles,  and  emery  wheels,  must 
usually  be  securely  guarded.  If  this  is  impos- 
sible, it  is  sometimes  required  that  notice  of  the 
danger  be  conspicuously  posted.  Loosely  phrased 
requirements  for  fire  escapes  are  found  in  many 
states,  but  it  was  not  until  disastrous  factory 
fires  had  occurred  in  New  York  and  New  Jer- 
sey that  scientific  provisions  for  fire  prevention 
and  safe  exits  became  general.  Factory  doors 
are  supposed  to  swing  out  or  to  slide,  and  not 
to  be  locked  during  working  hours.  The  courts 
have  often  held  that  failure  to  provide  the  re- 
quired safeguards  in  itself  constitutes  negligence 
on  the  employer's  part,  and  that  the  workman 
does  not  assume  the  consequent  risk. 

Mining 

Every  state  where  mining  is  an  important  in- 
dustry has  adopted  legislation  looking  to  the 
safety  of  the  men  who  carry  on  this  hazardous 

[75] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


IN  A  GLORY  HOLE 

This  mine  worker  in  case  of  a  slide  would  have  difficulty 
in  reaching  the  distant  safety  rope. 


work  underground.  In  many  cases  these  min- 
ing codes  are  among  the  lengthiest,  the  most  de- 
tailed, and  the  most  complex  of  our  labor  laws. 
They  usually  require  accurate  maps  showing 
all  workings  and  open  at  all  times  to  the  mine 
inspectors,  a  sufficient  number  of  escapement 
shafts,  proper  ventilation  and  supply  of  pure  air, 
and  periodic  inspections  to  discover  explosive 
or  poisonous  dusts  or  gases.  Precautions  against 
falling  rock  or  coal  must  be  taken  by  carefully 
timbering  dangerous  places.  Rules  are  laid 
down  for  proper  methods  of  drilling  and  blast- 

[76] 


SAFETY 


ing,  protected  hoisting  cages,  safety  lamps,  tele- 
phone connections,  and  sometimes  a  certain 
amount  of  first-aid  equipment.  Work  of  women 
in  mines  is  usually  prohibited.  Enforcement  of 
these  provisions  is  usually  given  to  a  special  body 
of  mine  inspectors.  In  1910  a  federal  Bureau  of 
Mines  was  established,  which  makes  studies, 
publishes  reports,  and  maintains  mine  rescue 
stations  and  cars,  but  has  no  power  to  enforce 
safety  legislation. 

Railroads  and  Street  Cars 

As  the  railroad  pushed  across  the  American 
continent,  reports  of  deaths  and  maimings,  par- 
ticularly in  connection  with  the  coupling  of  cars, 
became  more  frequent.  A  few  states  enacted 
protective  laws,  but  with  the  spread  of  inter- 
state transportation  it  soon  became  evident  that 
federal  action  was  needed  to  avoid  delay  and 
secure  uniformity. 

Accordingly  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission was  in  1893  given  authority  over  safety 
on  the  roads,  and  additional  statutes  required 
approved  automatic  couplers,  grab-irons,  power 
brakes,  and  other  safety  devices.  In  1910  the 
commission  was  given  further  power  to  investi- 
gate train  accidents  and  make  public  recommen- 
dations. In  1890,  when  only  about  10  per  cent, 
of  railway  cars  were  equipped  with  automatic 
couplers,  casualties  in  the  coupling  of  cars 

[77] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


A  MODERN  STEEL  MILL. 

Direct  descendant  of  the  village  blacksmith  shop, 
the  basic  industries  of  our  civilization. 


One  of 


formed  nearly  half  of  all  accidents  to  trainmen. 
By  1912,  when  99  per  cent,  of  all  cars  were  so 
equipped,  coupling  accidents  formed  only  about 
8  per  cent,  of  the  total.  In  this  legislation  and 
its  beneficial  results  the  United  States  is  far 
ahead  of  European  countries,  where  for  military 
reasons  the  various  national  railroad  adminis- 
trations have  feared  to  install  uniform  coupling 
devices. 

Recently  much  attention  has  been  called  to 
full-crew  legislation,  demanded  by  railroad 
workers  on  the  ground  that  trains  are  continu- 

[78] 


SAFETY 


ally  being  made  longer  and  heavier,  without  pro- 
portionate increase  in  the  size  of  the  crews.  The 
railroads  have  fought  these  laws  on  the  ground 
of  increased  operating  expense,  but  nearly  half 
the  states  have  enacted  them,  and  the  Pennsyl- 
vania law  has  been  upheld  as  a  reasonable  safety 
measure.  Numerous  states  have  also  adopted 
regulations  specifying  the  power  of  headlights, 
the  blocking  of  frogs  and  switches,  proper  clear- 
ance along  tracks,  sheds  for  repair  workers,  and 
other  safeguards.  Many  states  require  railroad 
employees  to  pass  tests  for  color  blindness  or 
other  defects  of  vision. 

Employees  on  street  or  interurban  railways  are 
also  frequently  protected  by  state  or  municipal 
action.  Among  the  requirements  thus  enforced 
are  closed  vestibules  in  winter,  seats  for  motor- 
men,  automatic  brakes,  and  examination  of  em- 
ployees. 

Navigation 

Until  1915  the  American  seaman  was  kept  in  a 
condition  of  semi-slavery  through  employment 
under  a  contract  which  was  enforceable  by  im- 
prisonment. A  few  state  laws  regarding  boiler 
inspection  and  signal  lights,  and  timid  federal 
legislation  on  size  and  experience  of  crews  and 
certain  conditions  of  living  and  working  on  ship- 
board, left  the  sailor  still  in  an  unsatisfactory 
position. 

[79] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

In  1915  Congress  passed  the  far-reaching  sea- 
men's act,  which  permits  men  to  leave  a  ship  in 
a  safe  port,  and  abolishes  arrest  and  imprison- 
ment as  a  penalty  for  desertion.  It  furthermore 
makes  provisions  for  proper  washing  places  and 
sleeping  quarters,  additional  life  boats,  and 
larger  and  better  equipped  crews. 


ARC  WELDER'S  HELMET. 

A  necessary  protection  to  the  arc  welder  against  the  intense 
glare  and  flying  particles  of  molten  metal. 

[80] 


SAFETY 


Certain  other  industries  are  brought  under  the 
safety  regulations  of  some  states.  Typical  pro- 
visions relate  to  scaffolding,  fencing  of  hoist 
holes,  and  filling  in  floors  in  the  construction 
and  painting  of  buildings. 

Administrative  Orders 

Helpful  as  these  safety  laws  have  been,  they 
disclose  on  close  examination  four  fundamental 
defects. 

First,  they  are  incomplete.  They  cover  only 
certain  specific  machines  or  processes  or  condi- 
tions which  are  in  the  minds  of  the  legislators 
at  the  time,  and  others  as  dangerous  or  even 
more  so  are  left  unregulated. 

Again,  they  often  fail  to  place  direct  respon- 
sibility on  any  one  for  improving  conditions. 
Safeguards  are  required  "in  the  discretion"  of 
the  commissioner  of  labor,  or  if  he  "so  directs." 
The  result  is  practical  license  to  maintain  danger 
spots  until  these  are  specifically  pointed  out  by 
the  inspector. 

Third,  they  lack  well-defined  standards.  Leg- 
islators, not  being  industrial  experts,  could  not 
be  expected  to  draft  specific  safety  standards  for 
the  vast  variety  of  establishments  in  their  states. 
Consequently  they  left  the  laws  vague,  and  ex- 
pected poorly  trained  inspectors  to  determine  in 
each  case  what  was  required.  This  discretion- 
ary power,  often  blunderingly  or  arbitrarily 

[81] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

used,  resulted  in  dissatisfaction  to  everyone  con- 
cerned. 

Finally,  the  statutes  were  not  flexible  enough 
to  meet  rapidly  changing  conditions.  The  more 
careful  and  precise  the  statute,  the  more  rapidly 
was  it  in  danger  of  falling  out  of  date  due  to 
technical  developments. 

As  a  remedy  for  this  situation,  several  of  the 
most  progressive  states,  such  as  New  York,  Ohio 
and  Wisconsin,  have  adopted  the  method  of  ad- 
ministrative orders.  The  legislature  lays  down 
the  general  law  that  workplaces  shall  be  made 
safe.  Committees  of  employers,  employees,  and 
technical  experts  in  the  various  industries  are 
called  together  by  the  state  industrial  commis- 
sion to  draft  rules  which  shall  achieve  this  re- 
sult. After  public  hearing  these  rules  are  issued 
by  the  commission,  and  have  the  force  of  law. 
Thus  the  experience  of  the  worker,  the  interest 
of  the  employer,  and  the  constructive  ability  of 
the  trained  technician  are  welded  together  in  a 
co-operative  effort  for  "Safety  First."  Further 
encouragement  is  given  to  this  movement  by  the 
rapid  spread  of  workmen's  compensation  laws, 
which  make  all  accidents  costly. 


[82] 


Health 
CHAPTER  FIFE 


N 


OT  only  must  industry  be  made  rea- 
sonably safe  from  accident,  it  must  be 
made  free  from  preventable  disease  as 
well. 


Occupational  Disease  Reporting 

In  the  absence  of  widespread  laws  for  work- 
men's health  insurance,  we  have  no  reliable  data 
on  the  amount  of  sickness  in  the  country  which 
is  attributable  to  industrial  causes.  In  1911 
California  enacted  the  first  American  law  re- 
quiring the  reporting  of  occupational  disease. 


DOUBLE  "WRIST  DROP." 

Hands  of  workman  paralyzed  for  sixteen  years  as  a  result 
of  lead  poisoning.    Five  of  his  fellow  workmen  died. 

[83] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

Within  five  years,  as  the  result  of  vigorous  and 
sustained  effort,  sixteen  states  enacted  similar 
statutes.  Yet  the  results  from  these  laws  have 
been  meager.  They  have  been  useful  mainly  as 
affording  occasional  clues  to  individual  plants 
where  further  precautions  should  be  taken.  For 
the  country  as  a  whole  we  must  still  depend  on 
estimates.  One  group  of  experts  concluded  that, 
on  the  basis  of  33,500,000  persons  gainfully  oc- 
cupied, no  fewer  than  284,000,000  days'  illness 
occur  annually,  causing  an  economic  waste  of 
nearly  $750,000,000.  Fully  one-quarter  of  this 
enormous  waste,  they  computed,  could  be  pre- 
vented by  deliberate  effort,  largely  in  the  direc- 
tion of  greater  care  and  cleanliness  in  the  na- 
tion's workshops. 

Causes  of  Occupational  Disease 

The  causes  which  give  rise  to  diseases  so  close- 
ly and  unmistakably  connected  with  the  patient's 
work  as  to  be  justly  considered  occupational, 
are  highly  varied.  They  may  be  dangerous 
dusts,  acids  or  fumes.  Of  these  a  careful  list 
of  fifty-four  has  been  prepared  by  the  Inter- 
national Association  for  Labor  Legislation, 
under  the  name  "industrial  poisons."  One  of 
them,  lead,  is  in  constant  use  in  more  than  160 
trades,  from  embroidery  to  house-painting.  It 
may  cause  lead  colic,  paralysis  of  the  wrists 
("wrist  drop"),  or  even  death.  Another  is  mer- 

[84] 


HEALTH 


cury,  sometimes  used  in  mirror  and  thermometer 
making  and  in  fur  work,  which  produces  a  pecu- 
liar type  of  palsy  known  as  "hatters'  shakes." 
Yellow  phosphorus,  formerly  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  matches,  destroyed  the  jaws  of  those 
whom  it  attacked.  During  the  war  the  suddenly 
increased  use  of  picric  acid  and  "trinitrotoluol" 
in  filling  shells,  and  of  "tetrachlorethane"  as  a 
solvent  in  the  varnish  for  airplane  wings,  gave 
rise  to  hundreds  of  cases  of  obscure  poisoning 
and  many  deaths.  Even  if  the  dust  given  off  in 
a  trade  is  not  poisonous — as  the  lint  in  a  silk 
mill,  or  the  grit  in  a  quarry — after  a  long  period 
of  infiltration  into  the  lungs  it  will  cake  the  tis- 
sues and  set  up  mechanical  irritation  and  vari- 
ous forms  of  lung  trouble.  "Back  in  the  first 
century  after  Christ,"  says  Dr.  Alice  Hamilton, 
long  an  expert  on  these  questions,  "Pliny  the 
Elder  spoke  of  the  diseases  of  slaves,  lead  poi- 
soning and  mercury  poisoning,  and  the  consump- 
tion of  knife  grinders  and  potters.  We  have  all 
of  these  still  with  us." 

Harmful  germs  and  parasites  also  occur  in 
industry.  Thus  the  anthrax  bacillus  may  infect 
tanners  and  workers  in  wool  and  hair,  while 
miners'  hookworm  menaces  those  who  toil  under 
insanitary  conditions  amid  warmth  and  moisture 
underground.  The  tunnel  or  caisson  worker 
dreads  compressed  air  illness  or  the  "bends" 
caused  by  coming  back  too  rapidly  to  an  at- 

[85] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


PREVENTION  OF  LEAD  POISONING. 

By  use  of  wet  methods  of  polishing,  the  dangerous  dust  can 
be  kept  down. 

mosphere  of  normal  density.  Telegraphers' 
cramp,  a  painful  twitching  of  the  eyeballs  known 
as  miners'  nystagmus,  and  other  occupational 
neuroses  come  from  excessive  strain  and  long 
continued  use  of  a  single  set  of  muscles.  More 
difficult  to  trace  are  the  ailments  which  may  arise 
in  any  industry  from  improper  lighting,  poor 
ventilation,  and  ill-regulated  temperature  and 
humidity. 

Health  and  Morals  of  Child  Workers 

Many  of  the  restrictions  on  child  labor  are 
designed  as  a  protection  not  so  much  against 
accidents  as  against  dangers  to  health  and  mor- 

[86] 


HEALTH 


als.  Thus  some  states  set  a  minimum  age  of  six- 
teen years  for  employment  with  lead  or  com- 
positions containing  poisonous  acids.  Others 
have  fixed  limits  as  high  as  eighteen  or  even 
twenty-one  for  night  messenger  service  or  other 
morally  dangerous  work.  In  a  number  of  lead- 
ing states  children  applying  for  work  permits 
must  be  physically  examined,  and  educational 
requirements  are  common. 

Employment  of  Women  and  Men 

Because  of  their  inherently  weaker  resistance 
to  certain  health  dangers,  as  well  as  for  moral 
reasons,  women  are  frequently  restricted  from 
some  kinds  of  work.  Among  these  are  occupa- 
tions which  require  constant  standing,  operation 
of  emery  or  polishing  wheels,  and  employment 
in  saloons.  Some  states  forbid  the  employment  of 
women  in  manufacturing  or  mercantile  establish- 
ments for  a  few  weeks  before  and  after  child- 
birth. 

Legal  regulations  for  the  exclusion  of  men 
from  dangerous  employments  apply  only  to  in- 
dividuals who  are  found  by  examination  to  be 
unable  to  withstand  the  hazards.  Thus  a  few 
states  bar  from  work  in  compressed  air  men  who 
fail  to  pass  a  physical  test  or  who  use  intoxicants 
to  excess.  But  most  common  occupational  dis- 
eases come  on  so  slowly  that  the  examination 
must  be  repeated  periodically  if  health  is  to  be 

[87] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


"DOPING"  AIRPLANE  WINGS. 

The  varnish  which  kept  the  birdmens  wings  taut  contained 
a  poisonous  substance  known  as  "tetrachlorethane" 

properly  guarded.  Such  examinations  are  pro- 
vided for  in  these  compressed  air  laws,  and  also 
in  the  "lead  laws"  of  half  a  dozen  important  lead 
using  states.  In  bakeshops  and  other  food  es- 
tablishments statutes  occasionally  prohibit  the 
employment  of  persons  with  a  contagious  disease 
which  might  be  passed  on  to  fellow  workers  or 
to  consumers  of  the  product. 

Prohibition  of  Dangerous  Substances 

Another  form  of  prohibitive  legislation  de- 
signed to  protect  health  forbids  the  industrial 
use  of  well-known  poisons  or  other  disease-pro- 

[88] 


HEALTH 


ducing  agencies.  Ten  European  countries  have 
united  in  an  international  treaty  banning  poison- 
ous phosphorus  in  the  match  industry,  and  the 
United  States  attained  the  same  result  by  levying 
a  prohibitive  tax  of  two  cents  a  hundred  on 
matches  made  with  this  ingredient.  Canada  and 
Mexico  and  a  number  of  colonies  have  also 
outlawed  it.  Some  European  countries,  notably 
France,  have  taken  steps  to  prohibit  the  use  of 
lead  in  paint. 

Famous  in  textile  history  is  the  "kiss  of  death" 
shuttle,  which  requires  the  operative  to  suck  the 
thread  into  it.  Both  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island  now  forbid  the  use  of  shuttles  of  this  type, 
but  because  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  satisfac- 
tory substitutes  the  laws  are  not  very  effective. 
Contagious  diseases  among  glass  blowers  are 
guarded  against  in  France  and  Portugal  by  re- 
quiring individual  blowpipes.  Use  of  the  com- 
mon drinking  cup  or  towel  is  forbidden  in  some 
states,  and  pure  drinking  water  is  often  required. 

Regulation  of  Workshop  Conditions 

Less  drastic  than  the  principle  of  prohibition 
is  that  of  regulation,  which  has  been  followed 
in  most  enactments  on  industrial  hygiene.  Dust 
and  fume,  whether  metallic,  chemical,  vegetable 
or  animal  in  origin,  and  whether  poisonous  or 
not,  are  among  the  most  insidious  and  serious  of 
modern  health  hazards.  Illness  and  death  of 

[89] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

wage-earners  vary  almost  in  direct  proportion 
to  the  contamination  of  the  air  supply  in  their 
occupation.  Hence  about  half  the  states  have 
enacted  provisions  that  factories  shall  be  ven- 
tilated, but  the  wording  is  in  most  cases  so  vague 
that  it  means  little.  More  important  are  the 
statutes  which  require  the  removal  of  dangerous 
dust  and  fume  at  the  point  of  origin  by  specially 
constructed  hoods,  hoppers,  and  exhaust  fans. 
Regulations  of  this  type  have  been  established 
either  by  statute  or  by  administrative  order  prin- 
cipally in  the  large  lead  using  states.  As  addi- 
tional precautions  most  of  these  laws  require 
wet  cleaning  methods,  respirators,  washing  fa- 
cilities, special  working  clothing,  separate  wash- 
ing and  lunch  rooms  and  prohibit  the  bringing 
of  food  or  drink  into  the  work  places.  Similar 
provisions  in  other  countries  have  helped  reduce 
the  risk  of  lead  poisoning  far  below  previous 
American  experience. 

Despite  recent  striking  increase  in  the  number 
of  anthrax  cases  among  tanners  and  leather  work- 
ers, the  United  States  has  done  little  to  coun- 
teract this  striking  industrial  disease.  Common 
legal  safeguards  in  other  countries  include  dis: 
infection  of  hides,  hair  and  bristles,  special  over- 
alls, neck  coverings  and  gloves,  and  facilities  for 
thorough  washing. 

Some  states  forbid  sleeping  in  workrooms,  and 
some  require  that  rags  for  wiping  machinery  be 

[90] 


HEALTH 


ANTHRAX  GERMS. 

The  slender  rod-like  bodies  are  the  anthrax  bacilli  among 
the  blood  corpuscles  of  a  patient. 

sanitary.  To  guard  against  infection  from  small 
wounds,  the  requirement  of  factory  "first-aid" 
kits  is  growing. 

Particularly  striking  is  the  special  protection 
of  women  manifested  in  the  legislation  requir- 
ing seats,  toilets,  and  dressing  rooms.  Almost 
every  state  requires  seats  for  women  in  mercan- 
tile establishments,  and  a  majority  extend  the 
provision  to  manufacturing.  These  laws  are  of 
little  importance,  as  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  make  sure  that  use  of  seats  is  permitted.  Near- 
ly every  state  requires  sanitary  and  separate  toi- 

[91] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

lets  for  women  workers  in  addition  to  those  for 
men. 

Tenement  house  manufacture,  or  the  "sweat- 
shop" system,  is  often  held  up  as  a  pleasant  and 
easy  method  by  which  poor  women  and  children 
can  add  at  leisure  to  the  family  income.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  such  work  has  usually  proved 
a  menace  to  wage  standards  and  to  existing  labor 
laws.  Congestion,  insanitary  conditions,  unregu- 
lated hours  and  unrestricted  child  labor  flour- 
ish when  thousands  of  tenement  factories  are 
added  to  the  burden  of  the  factory  inspector.  At- 
tempts to  prohibit  tenement  house  manufacture 
have  so  far  been  ruled  out  by  the  courts,  but 
further  restrictions  are  gradually  being  secured. 

In  the  field  of  industrial  hygiene  as  well  as  in 
safety  work  it  has  been  found  inefficient  for  the 
legislature  to  enact  hard  and  fast  standards 
which  are  incapable  of  amendment  until  the  fol- 
lowing session.  So  diverse  are  the  requirements 
of  different  industries,  and  so  rapidly  do  tech- 
nical processes  change,  that  here  also  there  is 
need  of  the  method  of  regulation  by  continuing 
investigation  by  committees  of  those  directly  in- 
terested, under  supervision  of  an  industrial  com- 
mission. When  occupational  and  other  sick- 
ness is  brought  under  social  insurance  as  acci- 
dents already  are,  much  more  attention  will  be 
paid  to  its  prevention. 


[92] 


Self-Government  in  Industry 
CHAPTER  Six 

WORKING  people  did  not  always  have 
the  right  to  organize  into  unions  for 
the  advancement  of  their  own  inter- 
ests,   as    they    have    to-day    in    most 
civilized  countries.  When  the  craftsmen's  guilds 
of  the  middle  ages  gave  way  a  century  ago  to 
the  present  industrial  system  based  upon  the 
relation  of  employers  and  employees,  the  work- 
men were  often  forbidden  to  meet  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  trade  matters.    Associations  of  wage- 
earners  were  declared  to  be  "conspiracies,"  and 
were  prohibited  by  law  in  both  England  and 
France. 

The  idea  that  unions  of  workers  were  con- 
spiracies was  brought  to  America  by  the  colo- 
nists, and  many  strikes  or  movements  for  better 
pay  in  this  country  were  followed  by  prosecu- 
tions. In  the  earliest  cases  the  juries  always 
convicted.  But  the  spread  of  the  factory  system, 
throwing  workers  together  in  larger  and  larger 
groups,  and  giving  them  a  sense  of  their  com- 
mon interest,  directly  encouraged  organization. 
In  1824  and  1825  the  conspiracy  statutes  in  Eng- 
land were  repealed,  and  during  the  following 
decade  in  America  the  doctrine  was  gradually 

[93] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


HATTERS'  SHAKES. 

Hatters,  mirror  makers  and  others  who  come  in  contact 

ivith  mercury,  contract  a  peculiar  palsy  or 

trembling  of  the  hands. 

modified  by  common  consent  and  interpretation 
by  the  courts. 

Growth  of  Trade  Unions 
The  first  recorded  trade  union  in  America 
was  a  little  local  organized  by  the  Philadelphia 
shoemakers  in  1792.  By  1833  the  workers  had 
learned  the  value  of  all  the  trades  in  one  center 
sticking  together,  and  the  first  city  federation 
of  unions  in  various  crafts  was  formed  in  New 
York.  Three  years  later  the  shoemakers  built 
up  the  first  national  union,  which  took  in  mem- 
bers of  their  trade  throughout  the  country.  Now 
there  are  about  125  such  national  unions,  repre- 
senting most  of  the  important  trades,  and  affil- 
iated mainly  with  the  American  Federation  of 

[94] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

Labor.  Their  membership  includes  some  3,- 
000,000  people,  or  about  one-tenth  of  all  the 
wage-earners  in  the  country.  In  England  and 
other  countries  the  proportion  of  those  orga- 
nized is  much  larger. 

Many  employers,  including  some  of  the  larg- 
est corporations,  still  bitterly  oppose  all  at- 
tempts of  their  men  to  organize,  and  will  not 
allow  a  union  member  to  work  for  them  if  they 
know  it.  In  their  efforts  to  prevent  the  growth 
of  unionism  they  are  assisted  by  certain  Supreme 
Court  decisions.  In  one  case  the  court  declared 
that  employers  had  a  perfect  right  to  discharge 
workmen  for  joining  a  union.  In  another  case 
this  highest  court  in  the  country  decided  that 
a  union  had  no  right  to  attempt  to  organize  men 
if  they  had  agreed  as  a  condition  of  employment 
not  to  join  any  union.  These  two  decisions  to- 
gether seem  to  make  it  possible  for  powerful 
employers  absolutely  to  destroy  all  organiza- 
tion among  their  working  force,  although  they 
themselves  have  full  scope  to  unite  in  manufac- 
turers' or  employers'  associations  of  various  sorts. 
Nevertheless,  the  legal  right  to  organize  is  now 
generally  recognized.  To  protect  this  right  Con- 
gress a  few  years  ago  passed  the  Clayton  act, 
which  declares  that  "labor  is  not  a  commodity" 
and  prohibits  the  laws  against  trusts  from  being 
interpreted  so  as  to  interfere  with  the  existence 
of  labor  organizations.  During  the  war,  in  or- 

[95] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


CAISSON  IN  FULL  OPERATION. 

Workers   ("sand  hogs")   at  bottom  of  caisson  work  under 

atmospheric  pressure  to  prevent  water  from  flowing  in. 

[96] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

der  to  prevent  serious  unrest  and  consequent 
reduction  of  output,  the  government  went  even 
further.  Through  the  War  Labor  Board  and 
other  bodies  for  the  settlement  of  disputes  it  in- 
duced many  anti-union  employers,  temporarily 
at  least,  to  permit  unions  in  their  establishments. 

Strikes  and  Lockouts 

But  while  the  right  of  labor  unions  to  exist 
is  no  longer  questioned  in  this  country,  they  are 
still  hampered  in  many  of  their  activities. 
Forced  labor  is  slavery,  and  therefore  is  not  per- 
mitted in  America  except  as  a  punishment  for 
crime.  Hence  a  man  cannot  be  compelled  to 
work  if  he  wants  to  quit,  even  if  he  has  signed 
a  contract  to  work.  But  when  many  men  quit 
together,  the  action  becomes  a  "strike,"  and  this 
act,  the  most  essential  of  labor's  weapons,  has 
often  been  condemned  as  illegal. 

The  theory  on  which  some  strikes  are  con- 
demned is  that  many  persons  acting  together  have 
a  power  for  harm  which  no  one  person  pos- 
sesses. The  deciding  point  appears  to  be  the 
rather  vague  one  of  whether  the  movement  is 
designed  primarily  to  benefit  the  strikers,  or  to 
injure  the  employer  or  non-unionists.  Thus 
strikes  for  higher  wages  or  shorter  hours  are 
everywhere  considered  lawful.  But  strikes  to 
gain  a  closed  shop,  sympathetic  strikes,  strikes 
against  obnoxious  foremen  or  non-union  mate- 

[97] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


PROTECTED  FROM  DUST 

Respirators  keep  flying  particles  of  metal  from  getting  into 
grinders'  lungs. 

rial,  and  strikes  growing  out  of  jurisdiction  dis- 
putes between  rival  unions,  have  been  con- 
demned in  many  states.  Only  in  California  is  it 
settled  law  that  all  strikes  are  legal.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  right  of  an  employer  to  close 
his  shop  when  he  wishes,  in  other  words  to 
enforce  a  "lock-out,"  is  still  unquestioned. 

Picketing 

Strikes  cannot  be  won  if  the  employer  is  able 
to  fill  his  shop  with  strike-breakers.  Hence  the 
strikers  try  to  prevent  the  employer  from  get- 

[98] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

ting  them.  They  may  do  this  either  through 
persuasion  or  through  intimidation.  All  courts 
agree  that  intimidation  is  unlawful,  but  persua- 
sion is  usually  permitted. 

There  is,  however,  no  very  clear  line  between 
the  two.  Many  courts  uphold  peaceful  picket- 
ing, but  others  declare  that  there  is  no  such  thing. 
Charges  of  violence  are  often  made  by  both 
strikers  and  employer,  but  the  evidence  is  sel- 
dom clear,  and  most  decisions  have  gone  against 
organized  labor.  In  several  states  the  courts 
have  condemned  all  picketing,  and  some  have 
even  made  it  illegal  by  statute. 

Boycott  and  Blacklist 

Another  collective  weapon  of  labor  to  secure 
its  demands  is  the  boycott.  The  cooks  or  waiters 
may  by  pickets  or  advertising  attempt  to  turn 
trade  away  from  a  restaurant  keeper  who  refuses 
to  hire  union  help  or  to  grant  union  conditions. 
This  is  a  so-called  "primary"  boycott.  But  few 
employers  sell  directly  to  consumers.  If  the  hat- 
ters wished  to  enforce  a  boycott  on  a  hat  manu- 
facturer, they  would  have  to  appeal  to  their 
friends  not  to  purchase  his  goods  from  the  haber- 
dashers. This  would  bring  into  the  matter  a 
third  party,  the  retailer,  who  was  not  directly 
concerned  in  the  original  quarrel,  and  would 
constitute  a  "secondary"  boycott 

[99] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

As  early  as  1886  boycotts  were  declared  il- 
legal, and  many  decisions  have  since  confirmed 
this  view.  Both  kinds  of  boycotts  are  usually 
condemned,  but  the  court  statements  against  pri- 
mary boycotts  are  all  incidental  references  in 
decisions  which  condemn  secondary  boycotts. 
The  argument  against  the  secondary  boycott  is 
usually  that  it  amounts  to  an  attempt  to  coerce 
a  third  party,  and  therefore  is  a  conspiracy. 

Until  1908,  however,  boycotting  was  conduct- 
ed openly  and  fearlessly.  Trade  union  papers 
customarily  carried  long  lists  of  employers 
under  the  heading  "Unfair"  or  "We  don't  pat- 
ronize." In  the  year  mentioned  a  Danbury  hat 
manufacturer  was  awarded  triple  damages  and 
costs  under  the  anti-trust  law  for  alleged  in- 
juries to  his  business  through  a  boycott  started 
by  the  hatters'  union  in  the  struggle  to  organize 
his  shop.  More  than  $230,000  was  levied  against 
the  union,  and  as  it  could  not  pay,  the  threat  was 
made  that  the  homes  of  several  members  would 
be  sold  to  satisfy  the  judgment.  This  was  avert- 
ed by  collection  of  an  assessment  among  the  or- 
ganized workers  generally.  Less  use  is  now 
made  of  the  boycott  than  formerly. 

The  weapon  in  the  employer's  hands  which 
most  closely  corresponds  to  the  boycott  is  the 
"blacklist,"  or  the  agreement  not  to  employ  cer- 
tain workmen.  Most  states  have  laws  prohibit- 
ing blacklisting,  but  they  are  dead  letters.  In 

[100] 


SELF-GOVERNME'NT,  IN    IN.pJJ,S.TRY 


CLEANLINESS  BREEDS  HEALTH. 

Workers  should  not  eat  or  leave  the  factory  without 
thoroughly  washing  their  hands. 

these  days  of  watermarked  paper,  telegraph,  and 
telephone,  it  is  easy  for  one  employer  to  give 
another  secret  information  which  may  lead  to  a 
workman's  discharge.  The  employer's  right  to 
discharge  is  absolute,  and  the  man  who  is  de- 
prived of  a  livelihood  usually  has  no  proof 
against  the  person  who  supplied  the  information. 

"Open"  an d  "Closed"  Shop 

As  already  stated,  strikes  to  secure  a  "closed" 
shop  are  often  held  to  be  illegal.  A  closed  shop 
is  one  in  which  only  members  of  the  union  are 
permitted  to  work.  Employers  object  to  this  re- 

[101] 


LABOR,  PJR.OBUUEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


A  FACTORY  HOSPITAL. 

Hospitals  in  modern  industrial  establishments  help  to  main- 
tain health  and  efficiency. 

striction  as  an  interference  with  their  business, 
and  are  likely  to  contend  for  the  "open"  shop,  in 
which  theoretically  any  one,  union  or  non-union, 
may  find  employment.  In  practice,  however, 
the  open  shop  in  name  is  usually  a  closed 
shop  in  an  opposite  sense — closed  to  union  mem- 
bers. Unionists  point  out  that  if  they  allow  non- 
members  to  slip  in,  their  own  control  of  the 
shop  is  weakened  and  standards  are  soon  low- 
ered. Wages  are  cut  or  hours  lengthened,  or 
the  beginnings  of  industrial  democracy  are 
stamped  out.  Since  the  employers'  right  to  or- 

[102] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

ganize  is  unquestioned,  labor  believes   that  it 
should  be  given  equal  privilege. 

Mediation  or  Conciliation 
In  the  effort  to  secure  industrial  peace,  vari- 
ous plans  have  grown  up  for  preventing  dis- 
putes between  employers  and  employees  from 
becoming  acute,  or  for  bringing  the  two  sides 
together  after  a  break  has  occurred.  About 
three-quarters  of  the  states  have  permanent 
boards  for  this  purpose.  The  federal  govern- 
ment also  has  various  provisions  of  the  sort,  the 
best  known  having  been  the  War  Labor  Board 
created  in  1918.  In  mediation  or  conciliation 
the  government  officials  act  as  go-betweens  con- 
sulting employers  and  employees  in  turn.  They 
carry  proposals  from  one  to  the  other,  or  bring 
them  into  joint  conference,  so  that  an  agreement 
may  be  reached.  The  opportunity  for  sympa- 
thetic and  tactful  work  in  this  direction  is  very 
large,  and  settlements  gained  in  this  way  are 
likely  to  satisfy  both  parties. 

Arbitration 

Another  method  of  settling  trade  disputes  is 
arbitration,  in  which  a  binding  decision  is  given 
by  an  outside  agency.  Attempts  to  require  the 
compulsory  submission  of  disagreements  to  an 
arbitration  tribunal  never  made  much  headway 
in  England,  except  for  a  time  during  the  war, 
but  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia  compulsory 

[103] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


WORKMEN'S  COMPENSATION  IN  THE  U.  S. 

White  states,  and  the  federal  government  for  its  own  em- 
ployees, provide  indemnity  for  industrial  accident. 

arbitration  boards  have  been  universally  estab- 
lished within  a  couple  of  decades.  One  reason 
for  this  trend  is  the  growth  of  political  democ- 
racy, which  brought  about  more  confidence  of 
the  people  in  the  government.  Another  is  the 
demand  of  employers  for  protection  against  the 
more  powerful  unions.  As  a  means  of  prevent- 
ing strikes  these  laws  have  often  been  commend- 
ed, but  they  have  not  prevented  suspension  of 
work  in  some  important  cases. 

A  Canadian  law  requires  the  compulsory  in- 
vestigation of  industrial  disputes  and  prohibits 
strikes  or  lockouts  in  public  utilities  and  mines 
without  due  notice.  The  miners  are  hostile  to 
the  law,  as  they  say  it  gives  the  companies  time 

[104] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

to  secure  strike-breakers  and  to  pile  up  stocks 
of  coal.  Employers  favor  the  act,  and  it  seems 
on  the  whole  to  have  diminished  the  number 
of  strikes.  A  similar  statute  was  adopted  by 
Colorado  in  1915,  but  has  aroused  much  bitter- 
ness among  organized  labor. 

At  the  same  time,  many  prominent  employers 
and  labor  representatives  favor  the  existence  of 
state  or  federal  tribunals  before  which  disputes 
can  be  voluntarily  laid  by  those  concerned,  with 
the  understanding  that  the  decision  will  be  bind- 
ing. The  War  Labor  Board,  created  to  meet 
emergency  situations  in  munitions,  shipbuilding 
and  other  essential  industries,  acquired  a  coun- 
try-wide reputation  for  fair  and  enlightened  de- 
cisions. 

Toward  Industrial  Democracy 
The  emphasis  laid  on  the  idea  of  democracy 
during  the  war  had  its  echo  in  industry.  It  sud- 
denly strengthened  the  demand  which  labor  had 
been  falteringly  making  for  representation  in 
economic  as  well  as  in  political  affairs.  More 
and  more  of  late  have  the  workers  been  striving 
not  only  for  better  wages,  hours,  and  conditions, 
but  for  an  actual  voice  in  industrial  manage- 
ment. The  British  "shop  stewards'  "  movement, 
which  aims  to  set  up  in  the  shops  a  form  of 
trade  union  administration  more  responsive  to 
the  wishes  of  the  rank  and  file,  is  only  another 
manifestation  of  this  tendency. 

[105] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

During  the  war  labor  in  all  countries  secured 
a  degree  of  recognition  little  known  before.  Its 
leaders  became  cabinet  ministers.  It  had  a  seat 
on  governing  boards  of  important  war  indus- 
tries. It  awoke  to  a  new  sense  of  its  own  respon- 
sibility and  power  which  it  is  not  likely  to  lose 
in  the  future. 

Notably  in  England  has  constructive  attention 
been  paid  to  the  new  aspirations  of  the  working 
masses.  There  a  joint  official  commission  of 


PRACTICAL  RETRAINING. 

Maimed  worker  learning  draftsmanship  in  spite  of  loss  of 


an  arm. 


[106] 


SELF-GOVERNMENT    IN    INDUSTRY 

employers  and  trade  union  leaders,  while  the 
conflict  with  Germany  was  still  on,  submitted 
to  the  government  an  epoch-making  plan  for 
labor's  participation  in  the  government  of  indus- 
try. The  commission  recommended  the  estab- 
lishment, in  all  important  branches  of  produc- 
tion, of  joint  standing  industrial  councils  com- 
posed of  representatives  of  both  employers  and 
employees.  These  councils  are  to  consider  such 
questions  as  industrial  relations,  wage  adjust- 
ments, security  of  employment,  technical  educa- 
tion and  improvement,  legislation,  and  extension 
to  the  workpeople  of  further  responsibility  for 
determining  their  conditions  of  labor.  To  as- 
sist in  these  objects,  district  councils  within  each 
industry  are  proposed,  organized  on  the  same 
basis  of  joint  representation,  and  under  these 
there  are  to  be  works  committees  for  individual 
plants.  Some  eleven  of  these  national  councils 
were  organized  before  the  end  of  1918,  and 
many  of  them  have  their  work  well  under  way. 

Similar  proposals  have  been  made  for  the 
United  States,  but  have  not  yet  taken  definite 
shape.  Development  along  this  line  may  well 
be  the  direction  which  progress  toward  further 
self-government  in  industry  will  take.  The  right 
to  organize  and  to  collective  bargaining,  pain- 
fully evolved  through  nearly  a  century,  appears 
about  to  merge  into  the  right  to  co-operative 
management  of  the  agencies  of  production. 

[107] 


Social   Insurance 
CHAPTER  SEVEN 

AS  long  ago  as  1559  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon, 
in  opening  Queen  Elizabeth's  first 
Parliament,  referred  to  the  fact  that 
wise  merchants  "in  every  adventure 
of  danger"  paid  part  of  the  value  of  their 
cargo  to  have  the  rest  insured.  Other  kinds 
of  insurance  soon  sprang  up,  so  that  to-day  we 
have  fire  insurance,  burglary  insurance,  hail  in- 
surance, and  many  similar  devices  for  distribut- 
ing economically  among  many  the  losses  which 
would  otherwise  fall  crushingly  upon  a  few. 
For  the  working  man  and  woman,  who  depend 
for  a  livelihood  not  on  income  from  property  but 
on  wages  earned  by  their  daily  labor,  some  form 
of  insurance  is  equally  necessary  to  protect  them 
against  destitution  following  industrial  accident, 
sickness,  unemployment,  invalidity,  and  old  age. 
Still  it  has  been  found  that  the  mass  of  wage- 
earners  do  not  readily  take  out  insurance  against 
these  hazards  through  ordinary  commercial 
channels.  The  reasons  for  this  failure  are  partly 
the  inadequate  incomes  of  the  majority  of  wage- 
earners,  which  leave  insufficient  margin  for  the 
purpose,  partly  the  excessive  cost  of  private  in- 
surance operated  for  profit,  and  partly  lack  of 

[109] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


REDUCTION  OF  INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS 

Decrease  in  one  large  establishment  after  the  passage 
of  the  New  York  workmen's  compensation  law. 

foresight.  Collective  action  has  been  found  nee  • 
essary  if  the  insurance  is  to  become  general. 
The  system  of  providing  wage-earners  with  rea- 
sonable protection  against  the  hazards  of  life  by 
legislative  enactment,  at  low  cost,  often  assisted 
by  contributions  from  employers,  and  usually 
with  the  element  of  compulsion  introduced,  is 
called  social  insurance. 

In  addition  to  warding  off  destitution  due  to 
mischance,  insurance  has  another  very  desirable 
social  effect.  It  gives  fprce  to  efforts  for  cut- 
ting down  the  risk,  so  as  to  reduce  the  cost  of 
the  insurance.  '"If  society  and  industry  and  the 
individual,"  said  Louis  D.  Brandeis,  in  1911, 

[no] 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


before  he  became  a  member  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  "were  made  to  pay  from  day  to  day  the 
actual  cost  of  sickness,  accident,  invalidity,  pre- 
mature death,  or  premature  old  age  consequent 
upon  excessive  hours  of  labor,  of  unhygienic  con- 
ditions of  work,  of  unnecesary  risk,  and  of  ir- 
regularity of  employment,  those  evils  would  be 
rapidly  reduced."  This  prophecy  has  already 
been  strikingly  fulfilled  with  regard  to  indus- 
trial accidents. 

Workmen's  Compensation  for  Accidents 

Accidents  are  spectacular.  They  occur  at  a 
definite  time,  and  responsibility  can  usually  be 
fixed.  Probably  for  these  reasons  the  first  form 
of  social  insurance  to  be  extensively  developed  in 
the  United  States  was  workmen's  compensation 
for  industrial  accidents. 

Before  the  introduction  of  workmen's  compen- 
sation laws  the  injured  employee  could  recover 
for  his  suffering,  maiming,  loss  of  earnings,  and 
expense  of  medical  treatment  only  by  suing  his 
employer  in  a  court  of  law.  As  such  action  was 
likely  to  mean  discharge,  few  employees  sought 
their  legal  remedy  unless  the  injury  were  very 
severe  and  the  expected  indemnity  correspond- 
ingly large. 

If  a  case  was  brought  to  court,  the  employer 
sought  shelter  behind  a  number  of  traditional 
legal  defenses.  One  was  the  "fellow  servant" 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

rule,  by  which  it  was  frequently  held  that  some 
other  workman,  not  the  employer,  was  respon- 
sible for  the  injury.  Since  most  employees  now- 
a-days  work  in  large  groups,  this  was  very  often 
the  case,  and  the  injured  workman  lost  his  suit. 
Another  defense  of  the  employers  was  "contribu- 
tory negligence,"  which  meant  that  the  victim 
of  the  accident  had  brought  it  on  himself  by 
some  want  of  care,  however  slight.  Finally,  the 
employer  might  claim  immunity  under  the  prin- 
ciple of  "assumption  of  risk."  According  to  this 
principle  the  workman  by  accepting  employment 
took  upon  himself  all  the  customary  hazards  of 
the  occupation,  and  also  any  extraordinary  risk 
of  which  he  became  aware,  but  in  spite  of  which 
he  continued  working. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  under  such  condi- 
tions injured  workmen,  or  their  dependents  if 
the  accident  were  fatal,  stood  small  chance  of 
recovering  damages.  Moreover,  employers  usu- 
ally insured  their  liability  with  casualty  insur- 
ance companies,  which  maintained  strong  bat- 
teries of  expert  legal  talent  for  defeating  work- 
men's claims.  Investigations  showed  that  of 
every  $100  paid  by  employers  in  liability  pre- 
miums, only  about  $28  ever  reached  the  claim- 
ants, and  so  late  that  the  worst  of  the  need  was 
past. 

Rising  dissatisfaction  with  these  methods  re- 
sulted in  the  American  movement  for  work- 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


men's  compensation  legislation  similar  to  that 
which  was  already  in  force  in  some  European 
countries  for  decades.  Two  pioneer  statutes  were 
declared  unconstitutional,  but  in  1911  the  first 
state  compensation  act  to  go  into  permanent  ef- 
fect was  secured  in  New  Jersey.  In  the  period 
1911-1919  the  legislation  spread  to  forty-two 
states  and  territories,  and  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment adopted  a  model  act  covering  its  own 
million  civilian  employees.  The  validity  of  these 
laws  has  now  been  established  beyond  question 
by  favorable  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  direct  aim  of  these  laws  is  twofold — to 
restore  the  injured  man  to  industry  as  completely 
and  quickly  as  possible,  and  to  provide  for  the 
support  of  the  family  during  the  period  of  dis- 
ability. Most  American  laws  provide  for  medi- 
cal care,  but  they  hedge  it  in  with  limits  ranging 
from  one  week  to  ninety  days  in  time  or  from 
$25  to  $250  in  amount.  To  lighten  the  admin- 
istrative burden  and  to  discourage  men  from 
"laying  off"  unduly  for  minor  injuries,  most  laws 
set  a  "waiting  period"  of  from  three  days  to  two 
weeks  during  which  no  compensation  is  paid. 
As  only  about  25  per  cent,  of  accidents  requiring 
medical  care  cause  disability  for  more  than  two 
weeks  it  is  clear  that  the  latter  period  is  too  long. 
For  death  and  disability  the  best  laws,  such  as 
those  of  New  York  and  Ohio,  award  66  2/3  per 
cent,  of  wages,  within  certain  limits.  Death  bene- 

[113] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


ACCIDENT  AND  SICKNESS 

AS  FACTORS  IN  PRODUCING  DEPENDENCY 

Adapted  from  a  My  cf 31.181  Charity  Cases  ty  the  United  States  Inmiyntion  ftmnission.  1909 

Sickness  was  a  factor  in  12.082 cases.  or38.3%  of  the  total  number 
Accident  was  a  factor  in  1,211  cases.or  3.8%  of  the  total  number 

i 


Sickness:  6544  cases 


Accident:  1.004  cases 

Pisatdity  of  Breadwinner  Jit  one 


Sick  ness:  12.082  cases 


Accident:  121 1  cased 

Disability  of  Breadwinner  or  of 
other  Member  of  family 

Sickness  is  a  factor  in  6  Vfc  times.as  much  dependency  as  is 
industrial  accident.  The  State  requires  insurance  against  industrial 
accident  but  not  yet  against  sickness,  a  more  urgent  need. 

NEED  FOR  HEALTH  INSURANCE. 

fits  in  the  good  laws  are  paid  until  the  widow 
dies  or  remarries,  and  disability  benefits  during 
the  disability  even  if  it  be  lifelong.  For  partial 
disability  several  sliding  scales  have  been  de- 
vised to  apportion  compensation  to  the  degree 
of  incapacity.  Important  provisions  in  most  of 
the  acts  require  employers  to  insure  their  risk, 
sometimes  in  a  state  fund,  in  order  to  guarantee 
benefits  to  the  injured,  and  provide  for  super- 
visory administration  by  a  state  bureau  or  com- 
mission. A  beginning  has  also  been  made  in 
providing  vocational  reeducation  or  "rehabilita- 
tion" for  men  who  sustain  permanent  injuries 
which  interfere  with  their  continuing  in  their 
old  occupations. 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


In  a  few  of  the  laws,  including  the  federal  em- 
ployees' act,  occupational  diseases  are  covered 
under  the  term  "personal  injuries."  It  has  been 
found  that  so  doing  staves  off  hardships  in  some 
meritorious  cases,  and  increases  the  cost  of  the 
act  only  i  or  2  per  cent. 

Health  Insurance 

Most  sickness  from  which  wage-earners  suf- 
fer, however,  cannot  be  clearly  and  directly 
traced  to  industry.  Therefore  even  the  wide 
adoption  of  occupational  disease  compensation 
would  leave  most  of  the  sickness  hazard  uncov- 
ered. Further  protection  is  needed  if  the  pres- 
ent enormous  yearly  wage  losses  and  doctors' 
bills  are  to  be  more  equitably  distributed. 

The  draft  boards  have  showed  that  about  a 
third  of  America's  young  manhood  is  physically 
unfit  for  military  service.  Sickness  causes  seven 
times  as  much  appeal  to  charity  as  do  industrial 
accidents.  About  one-third  of  those  too  ill  to 
work  are  getting  no  medical  care.  Every  year 
15,000  mothers  die  from  causes  connected  with 
childbirth,  and  250,000  infants  are  carried  off 
in  the  first  year  of  their  lives.  Throughout  the 
country  the  degenerative  diseases — the  wear  and 
tear  diseases — are  on  the  increase. 

These  well-known  facts  point  to  the  need  for 
social  action,  and  one  of  the  most  frequently 
indicated  steps  is  the  establishment  of  workmen's 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

health  insurance.  Official  investigating  commis- 
sions in  five  states  have  reported  in  favor  of  this 
measure.  A  bill  passed  by  the  New  York  state 
senate  with  the  full  backing  of  the  state  fed- 
eration of  labor  and  scores  of  civic  organizations 
sought  to  provide  for  sick  wage-earners  and  their 
dependents  full  medical  care  for  twenty-six 


(Courtesy   New   York    Women's  Joint   Legislative    Conference.') 

"PROTECTED  1" 

This  workingmans  family  is  ready  for  the  inevitable  "rainy 
day"  caused  by  sickness. 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


weeks  in  any  year,  and  special  maternity  care  for 
insured  women  and  wives  of  insured  men.  Cash 
benefit,  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  trade  union 
and  fraternal  benefit  funds,  was  set  at  66  2/3  of 
wages,  but  in  no  case  more  than  $8  a  week.  A 
burial  benefit  of  $100  was  included. 

The  expense  of  these  benefits  was  to  be  met  by 
equal  contributions  from  employers  and  work- 
men. Administration  was  in  the  hands  of  local 
mutual  funds  democratically  managed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  both  sides,  under  supervision  of  the 
state  industrial  commission. 

Health  insurance  systems  on  this  general  plan 
are  in  successful  operation  in  ten  European 
countries,  including  England.  In  Italy,  so  im- 
portant was  maternity  insurance  considered  that 
a  compulsory  system  was  inaugurated  long  be- 
fore general  health  insurance  was  taken  up. 
These  laws  have  furnished  the  workers  in  the 
respective  countries  better  medical  care  than 
they  ever  enjoyed  before,  have  distributed  large 
sums  in  cash  benefits  to  prevent  destitution  in  the 
families  of  the  sick,  and  have  exerted  telling  in- 
fluence on  the  development  of  measures  for 
"Health  First"  in  industrial  and  community 
circles. 

Unemployment  Insurance 

Destitution  due  to  unemployment,  which  was 
until  recently  considered  a  matter  of  purely  in- 

[117] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


COMPULSORY  HEALTH  INSURAN. 
SUBSIDIZED  VOLUNTARY  SYSTEM 
\To  GENERAL  STATE  SYSTEM 


HEALTH  INSURANCE  IN  EUROPE. 

Most   leading   countries   in  Europe  already   provide   health 

insurance  for  their  industrial  workers. 

dividual  concern  or  of  charity,  is  now  also  com- 
ing to  be  recognized  as  an  evil  that  should  be  met 
by  the  forethought  of  society  as  a  whole. 

Unemployment  insurance  originated  first 
among  labor  unions,  which  footed  the  cost  them- 
selves without  outside  aid.  This  method 
achieved  considerable  success  in  Europe,  but  in 
the  United  States  only  a  few  national  unions  or 
local  branches  are  known  to  pay  out-of-work 
benefits.  Apparently  the  burden  is  too  heavy 
and  grievous  to  be  borne  by  the  workers  without 
assistance. 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


In  the  effort  to  encourage  wage-earners  to  pro- 
vide in  time  of  employment  for  their  needs  when 
work  was  slack,  the  city  of  Ghent  in  Belgium 
adopted  in  1901  the  plan  of  offering  subsidies  to 
trade  unions  which  paid  unemployment  benefits. 
This  "Ghent  system"  rapidly  spread  to  other 
countries.  The  subsidies  vary  from  33  1/3  to 
100  per  cent,  of  the  amounts  expended  by  the 
unions.  It  is  generally  recognized,  however, 
that  even  this  voluntary  subsidized  plan  fails  to 
reach  a  large  enough  number  of  workers.  The 
lesson  taught  by  other  branches  of  social  insur- 
ance points  to  obligatory  insurance  as  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem. 

Great  Britain  is  the  country  which  has  most 
thoroughly  heeded  the  lesson.  There,  as  part 
of  the  national  insurance  act  of  1911,  which  dealt 
also  with  health  insurance,  a  nation-wide  system 
of  compulsory  unemployment  protection  was  set 
up.  At  the  outset  about  2,500,000  workmen  were 
covered,  about  an  eighth  of  those  in  the  country, 
but  this  number  has  since  been  extended.  Em- 
ployer, employee,  and  the  government  contribute 
to  a  fund  from  which,  in  case  of  unemployment, 
the  worker  receives  a  small  weekly  cash  benefit 
for  fifteen  weeks  in  any  year. 

As  a  protection  to  the  employer,  a  workman 
is  refused  benefit  while  on  strike,  or  if  he  has  quit 
without  due  cause  or  is  discharged  on  just 
grounds.  On  the  other  hand,  an  unemployed 

[119] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


man  does  not  forfeit  his  benefits  if  he  refuses  to 
act  as  a  strike  breaker  or  to  take  wages  below  his 
usual  rate  or  the  current  rate  in  the  community. 
To  prevent  abuse,  the  system  is  administered  in 
close  connection  with  the  public  employment 
offices,  so  that  a  man's  inability  to  secure  a  place 
can  be  rapidly  tested.  During  the  demobiliza- 
tion period  England  was  reported  to  be  paying 
out  $5,000,000  a  week  in  unemployment  benefits. 
Definite  incentive  to  reduce  labor  turnover 
and  unemployment  is  held  out  by  offering  both 
employers  and  men  refunds  for  steady  work. 


i«»«r  Initiation 


WHY  NOT  EQUAL  PROTECTION  ? 

American   workman's  social  insurance  protection   compared 
with  British  ivork?nanJs. 


SOCIAL   INSURANCE 


Unemployment  insurance  bills  have  been 
drafted  for  introduction  in  several  American 
states.  Ten  weeks'  benefit  was  tentatively  pro- 
posed, with  the  proviso  that  the  amount  should 
be  generous  if  possible.  Refunds  to  employers 
who  ran  their  plants  steadily,  and  to  workmen 
who  were  seldom  out  of  employment,  and  cor- 
responding penalties  for  casual  labor,  were  in- 
cluded for  the  purpose  of  regularizing  industry. 

Invalidity  Insurance 

Invalidity,  or  a  chronic  condition  of  disability 
not  caused  by  accident,  partakes  somewhat  of  the 
nature  of  both  sickness  and  old  age.  Perhaps  for 
this  reason  insurance  against  it  is  carried  in  Eng- 
land along  with  the  former,  and  in  other  coun- 
tries with  the  latter.  In  any  case  the  same  mo- 
tives of  humanity  and  social  foresight  which  lead 
to  protection  against  pauperism  from  the  other 
hazards  of  life  should  result  in  provision  for  in- 
validity also. 

Old  Age  Insurance 

Rapid  development  of  industry  has  empha- 
sized the  individual's  earning  power.  Old  age 
has  been  deprived  of  the  esteem  once  bestowed 
on.it,  and  the  worn-out  worker  is  likely  to  be  cast 
unfeelingly  on  the  scrap-heap  of  industry. 

To  ward  off  old  age  poverty,  three  methods 
have  been  practiced — charity,  saving,  and  insur- 
ance. Charity,  however,  is  now  looked  upon  as 

[121] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


SHOP  COMMITTEE  MEETING. 

The  members  of  this  'committee  meet  periodically  to  discuss 
the  problems  arising  out  of  their  work. 

inadequate,  degrading,  and  uncertain.  Indi- 
vidual saving  is  unnecessarily  expensive,  even  if 
prevalent  low  wages  did  not  prevent  or  cripple 
it.  There  is  left  the  method  of  insurance. 

Voluntary  old  age  insurance  or  pension  plans 
are  found  in  a  few  American  fraternal  societies 
and  trade  unions.  Commercial  old  age  insur- 
ance, which  is  fairly  wide  spread  among  the  mid- 
dle class  in  Europe,  is  hardly  known  here. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  slight  spread  of  purely 
voluntary  insurance  plans,  a  number  of  coun- 
tries and  one  or  two  American  states  have  seen 

[122] 


SOCIAL    INSURANCE 


fit  to  encourage  them  by  offering  subsidies.  But 
even  state  assistance  and  supervision  have  failed 
to  reap  large  results.  Experts  agree  that  even 
generous  subsidies  attract  only  a  few  wage-earn- 
ers, and  that  the  resultant  benefits  are  small  and 
uncertain. 

Compulsory  old  age  insurance  is  found  in  half 
a  dozen  countries,  but  the  benefits  are  so  small 
as  to  be  almost  negligible,  and  they  are  granted 
in  most  places  only  to  persons  completely  unable 
to  earn  a  living.  Another  method,  found  in 
Great  Britain,  Australia,  and  elsewhere,  is  the 
establishment  of  straight  non-contributory  pen- 
sions. It  is  sometimes  objected  that  such  pen- 
sions tend  to  keep  down  wages,  destroy  the  habit 
of  thrift,  and  injure  family  solidarity.  It  is  re- 
plied that  persons  old  enough  for  pensions  are  a 
very  slight  item  in  the  labor  market,  that  thrift  is 
already  made  difficult  or  impossible  by  low 
wages,  and  that  the  regard  of  children  for  their 
parents  is  not  enhanced  by  the  latter's  being 
wholly  dependent. 

In  the  United  States  it  is  estimated  that  about 
1,250,000  of  the  people  over  sixty-five  years  of 
age  are  dependent  upon  public  or  private  char- 
ity, to  the  amount  of  about  $250,000,000  annu- 
ally. Yet,  declares  a  leading  authority,  "the 
United  States  is  the  only  great  industrial  nation 
in  the  civilized  world  that  has  not  already  at- 
tempted a  practical  and  permanent  solution  of 

[123] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


[INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION  I 

Safely  Atf&Q&toL-  Employers 


Sanitation 


Employees 


|  Committee  Meetings  and  Proposed  Rules.  | 

I 
_  Public  Hearings.  _ 


^administrative  Orders,        | 


Woman  aixd 
Child  Labor.   I 


Statistics,  Exhibits  and  Publications. 


OUTLINE    OF    ADMINISTRATION    UNDER    A 
STATE  INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION. 

[124] 


SOCIAL    INSURANCE 


this  problem  of  old  age  and  dependency."  Of 
late  the  trade  unions  have  taken  up  the  matter 
vigorously,  and  several  state  commissions  have 
been  appointed  to  study  it,  so  that  developments 
in  this  direction  may  be  looked  for  in  the  near 
future. 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  LAWS 

CHAPTER  EIGHT 

LABOR  legislation,  no  matter  how  good 
it  may  look,  is  of  little  use  unless  it  is 
intelligently  and  thoroughly  enforced. 
A  statute  which  confers  on  the  workers 
certain  rights  or  guarantees  them  a  certain  pro- 
tection is  only  a  scrap  of  paper  unless  it  is  lived 
up  to. 

The  early  labor  laws  both  in  this  country  and 
abroad  merely  made  pious  general  statements 
about  what  should  or  should  not  be  done.  They 
provided  no  officer  specifically  charged  with  the 
duty  of  seeing  that  their  provisions  were  car- 
ried out.  It  was  left  to  the  person  who  con- 
sidered himself  aggrieved  to  complain  to  the 
sheriff,  policeman,  prosecuting  attorney,  or 
other  official  of  the  court,  who  was  then  supposed 
to  prosecute. 

As  far  as  employers  were  concerned,  this  ar- 
rangement was  satisfactory.  If  a  body  of  work- 
men went  on  strike  for  higher  wages,  and  thus 
seemed  to  their  employer  to  violate  the  statute 
forbidding  "conspiracy,"  he  could  usually  en- 
gage lawyers  and  have  the  alleged  offenders 
brought  to  bar.  For  the  workmen,  however,  the 
situation  was  very  different.  They  did  not  dare 
complain  for  fear  of  discharge.  They  had  not 

[127] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

the  means  to  retain  attorneys.  The  public  offi- 
cials who  were  supposed  to  handle  such  mat- 
ters were  local  functionaries,  afraid  of  antag- 
onizing the  wealthy  and  influential  members  of 
the  community,  and  usually  had  other  duties 
more  pressing.  This  is  the  condition  which  still 
exists  in  some  states. 

Labor  Bureaus 

The  first  state  labor  bureau  in  the  world,  es- 
tablished in  Massachusetts  in  1869,  had  for  its 
purpose  the  collection  of  information  on  wages, 
hours  and  working  conditions.  Even  the  labor 
unions  which  struggled  until  they  secured  its 
creation  did  not  yet  realize  the  need  of  giving 
it  power  to  enforce  the  labor  laws.  Similar 
bureaus  have  now  been  established  in  nearly  all 
the  states  and  by  the  federal  government.  As 
more  experience  was  gained,  the  functions  of 
these  bureaus  were  expanded.  From  time  to 
time  they  were  called  upon  to  carry  on  investi- 
gations which  would  otherwise  have  been  con- 
ducted by  special  legislative  commissions. 

Factory  Inspectors 

In  1879  Massachusetts  again  took  the  lead  by 
appointing  the  first  American  factory  inspectors. 
These  officials  formed  a  class  of  special  state 
police,  whose  duty  it  was  to  investigate  con- 
ditions in  the  workplaces,  to  secure  their  own 
evidence  of  any  violations,  and  then  to  conduct 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LAWS 

the  prosecutions  without  calling  upon  the  em- 
ployees to  testify.  About  half  the  states  now 
have  such  inspectors,  the  force  in  New  York, 
the  largest  manufacturing  commonwealth,  num- 
bering more  than  150.  In  most  cases  the  fac- 
tory inspection  bureau  has  been  combined  with 
the  bureau  of  labor  statistics,  but  in  some  states 
both  of  these  bodies  are  in  existence  side  by 
side. 

A  number  of  reasons  have  combined  to  make 
much  factory  inspection  in  this  country  rather 
ineffective.  The  inspectors  have  usually  been 
political  place  holders  who  had  little  or  no  train- 
ing for  their  important  work.  They  are  poorly 
paid.  They  are  frequently  changed.  They  re- 
ceive little  recognition  for  honest,  efficient  work, 
and  lack  opportunity  for  promotion  and  a  pro- 
fessional career.  They  are  often  far  too  few 
for  the  volume  of  work.  A  great  deal  of  their 
time  is  spent  in  collecting  statistics  which  are 
incomplete  and  usually  out  of  date  when  they 
appear.  Meanwhile  the  courts  are  frequently 
declaring  labor  laws  unconstitutional  partly  be- 
cause sufficient  facts  are  not  presented  to  dem- 
onstrate conclusively  the  need  and  the  reason- 
ableness of  the  legislation.  This  whole  matter 
is  now  undergoing  widespread  discussion,  and  a 
number  of  promising  attempts  at  improvement 
are  under  way. 

[129] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

Industrial  Commissions 

Under  the  American  theory  of  government 
the  legislature  is  given  the  duty  of  investigat- 
ing conditions  and  drafting  necessary  measures 
in  accordance  therewith.  Growing  complexity 
of  conditions  makes  this  duty  more  and  more 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  fulfil.  Legisla- 
tive assemblies,  composed  mainly  of  lawyers  and 
farmers,  cannot  hope  to  become  experts  on  tech- 
nical industrial  matters.  Moreover,  even  if  they 
do  investigate  all  details,  the  resulting  legisla- 
tion in  a  short  time  becomes  out  of  date  and 
ceases  to  be  applicable  to  every  establishment 
and  to  every  circumstance.  As  a  result,  the 
factory  inspectors  are  forced  to  decide  in  their 
own  discretion  whether  to  enforce  the  law  as  it 
stands  or  not.  This  leads  to  inequality  of  ad- 
ministration, and  opens  the  way  to  arbitrariness 
and  even  corruption. 

Remedy  for  this  breakdown  was  sought  by 
creating  permanent  commissions  to  deal  with 
special  labor  matters.  Thus  a  dozen  states  have 
declared  that  women  and  children  must  not  be 
employed  for  less  than  a  living  wage,  and  have 
established  minimum  wage  commissions  to  de- 
termine proper  wage  standards.  More  than  half 
the  states  have  workmen's  compensation  com- 
missions to  determine,  under  the  law  laid  down 
by  the  legislature,  how  much  indemnity  employ- 
ers shall  pay  in  cases  of  industrial  accident. 

[130] 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LAWS 

Usually  commissions  of  this  kind  have  been 
set  up  in  addition  to  the  existing  state  bureaus 
of  labor  statistics,  factory  inspection,  and  others 
dealing  with  related  matters.  Sometimes  as 
many  as  eight  or  nine  independent  agencies  con- 
cerned with  labor  problems  have  been  in  oper- 
ation at  once  in  a  state. 

The  duplication,  overlapping,  confusion,  and 
wastefulness  of  this  situation  were  accentuated 
when  the  workmen's  compensation  commissions 
began  to  issue  rules  and  carry  on  inspections 
in  factories  for  safety.  The  result  was  conflict 
of  authority  with  the  factory  inspection  bureaus. 
Gradually  it  was  recognized  that  accident  pre- 
vention and  compensation  were  parts  of  the  same 
public  function,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
the  same  public  body. 

The  next  step  was  then  obvious.  It  was  to 
combine  all  the  scattered  bureaus  which  han- 
dled labor  questions  into  one  state  industrial 
commission,  and  to  give  to  this  commission  the 
power  to  investigate  and  issue  rules  to  complete 
and  apply  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  statute 
law.  Wisconsin,  the  first  state  to  make  this 
progressive  change,  was  shortly  afterward  fol- 
lowed by  New  York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Illi- 
nois, and  in  less  complete  form  by  a  few  others. 

Regulation  through   Continuous  Investigations 
The  industrial  commission  is  on  the  job  con- 
tinuously, and  not  only  at  intervals  like  a  legis- 

[131] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

lature.  It  is  not  hurried  to  put  through  a  mass 
of  legislation  before  a  specified  date  of  adjourn- 
ment. It  can  therefore  investigate  thoroughly 
and  in  detail.  It  can  issue  different  rules  for 
different  conditions,  and  can  modify  its  rules 
when  the  conditions  change  or  as  soon  as  it  dis- 
covers new  and  more  effective  remedies. 

The  usual  method  for  the  preparation  of  an 
industrial  commission  order  is  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows: In  connection  with  a  given  problem  a 
joint  committee  of  employers  and  employees  is 
called  together,  which  is  assisted  by  technical 
experts  and  by  representatives  of  the  commis- 
sion. This  committee  provides  for  the  represen- 
tation of  interests  which  is  necessary  if  all  the 
facts  are  to  be  given  due  weight  in  its  final  de- 
cision. If  such  due  weight  is  not  given  to  all 
the  facts,  the  decision  may  not  be  considered 
reasonable  by  the  courts.  The  committee  weighs 
the  testimony  of  inspectors  or  investigators.  It 
threshes  out  its  differences,  and  finally  reaches 
a  recommendation  which  represents  the  knowl- 
edge and  agreement  of  all.  When  this  agree- 
ment has  been  reached,  the  recommendation  is 
reported  to  the  commission,  which  adopts  it  as 
its  own  and  issues  it  as  a  tentative  order. 

The  next  step  is  to  hold  a  public  hearing  for 
all  persons  whose  interests  are  affected.  Oppor- 
tunity to  be  heard  is  essential  to  due  process  of 
law.  After  the  public  hearing  the  commission 

[132] 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LAWS 

drafts  the  rule  in  final  form,  and  when  it  is 
officially  published  it  goes  into  effect,  with  the 
full  force  of  a  law,  on  such  date  as  the  legisla- 
ture has  previously  designated. 

Even  with  this  procedure  the  rules  and  orders 
of  an  industrial  commission  are  not  legally  con- 
clusive and  binding  on  the  courts.  If  an  em- 
ployer violates  them,  and  is  brought  to  trial, 
he  is  likely  to  offer  as  a  defense  that  they  are 
unreasonable  in  some  respects.  He  may  call 
them  "class  legislation,"  or  say  that  they  discrim- 
inate unfairly.  In  that  case  the  court  will  have 
to  examine  into  the  constitutionality  of  the  rules. 
But  the  legislature  may  limit  the  grounds  on 
which  the  court  may  declare  a  rule  unconsti- 
tutional. It  may  provide  that  a  rule  issued  by 
the  commission  shall  be  nullified  only  for  errors 
in  law,  and  that  if  new  facts  are  shown  the  rule 
shall  be  referred  back  to  the  commission  for 
revision  in  accordance  with  those  facts. 

*  Civil  Service  and  Other  Problems 

It  is  important  that  the  officials  appointed  to 
enforce  labor  legislation  be  qualified  for  their 
work.  Sometimes  the  operation  of  the  laws  has 
suffered  because  the  inspectors  or  labor  commis- 
sioners were  selected  for  political  reasons  and 
were  unsuited  for  their  duties.  The  develop- 
ment of  civil  service  has  tended  to  correct  this 
situation.  In  the  best  states  there  are  careful 

[133] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

examinations  for  all  subordinates,  tenure  of  of- 
fice is  secure,  and  progress  is  being  made  toward 
more  just  salaries,  promotions  for  merit,  and 
the  development  of  professional  standards. 

As  labor  conditions  become  more  complex, 
the  task  of  drawing  up  progressive  and  humane 
legislation  becomes  more  difficult.  Specialists 
are  needed  to  frame  measures  which  will  be 
workable,  and  which  leave  no  loop-holes  for 
easy  evasion.  Often  enemies  of  labor  laws  seek 
to  defeat  their  purpose  by  seeking  to  introduce 
"jokers,"  or  apparently  innocent  clauses  which 
would  destroy  much  of  the  intended  effect. 

Unless  there  is  a  penalty  attached  to  violating 
a  law,  it  is  likely  to  become  a  dead  letter.  At 
the  same  time,  if  the  penalty  is  too  severe,  judges 
are  likely  not  to  impose  it.  Sometimes  in  order 
to  make  sure  that  a  violation  is  not  allowed  to 
continue,  licenses  are  revoked,  or  a  machine  may 
be  locked  so  that  it  cannot  be  used. 

Co-operation  by  Economic  Pressure. 

After  all,  the  best  enforcement  of  labor  laws 
is  secured  when  the  co-operation  of  employers 
and  employees  themselves  can  be  directly  en- 
listed. Many  improvements  are  directly  to  the 
interest  of  both,  and  if  they  can  be  made  to 
realize  this  fact  better  results  can  be  obtained 
than  in  any  other  way.  Inspectors  can  at  best 
visit  the  plant  only  every  few  months;  work- 
men and  employers  are  on  the  spot  all  the  time. 

[134] 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LAWS 

One  of  the  best  methods  for  thus  spurring  em- 
ployers and  workmen  to  act  together  for  indus- 
trial betterment  is  through  the  constant  economic 
pressure  set  up  by  social  insurance.  When  there 
is  a  financial  interest  in  reducing  industrial  evils, 
greater  activity  is  noticeable  in  preventive  work. 

International  Labor  Regulation 

Employers  have  frequently  objected  to  pro- 
gressive labor  measures  which  affected  only  their 
own  state.  They  said  they  feared  the  competi- 
tion of  rivals  in  other  states  who  could  operate 
under  lower  standards.  Actual  instances  of  in- 
dustries being  crippled  by  scientific  labor  laws 
have,  however,  practically  never  .been  proved. 

Similar  arguments  are  sometimes  made  when 
it  is  proposed  to  pass  a  labor  law  covering  the 
whole  country.  Then  the  plea  of  international 
competition  is  raised.  For  this  reason  leading 
thinkers  in  many  countries  have  advocated  the 
adoption  of  labor  protective  standards  on  an  in- 
ternational or  world-wide  basis. 

Such  world-wide  labor  standards  would  pro- 
tect humane  manufacturers  in  one  nation  from 
being  held  back  in  their  improvements  by  the 
unchecked  competition  of  those  in  more  back- 
ward countries.  They  would  also  assist  the 
backward  countries  in  elevating  their  standards 
towards  the  level  of  the  highest. 

Two    international    treaties    embodying   just 

[135] 


LABOR  PROBLEMS  AND  LABOR  LEGISLATION 

such  humane  labor  standards  were  in  operation 
before  the  world  war.  One  prohibited  the  use 
of  poisonous  phosphorus  in  the  manufacture  of 
matches,  the  other  forbade  night  work  for 
women.  Each  had  been  adopted  by  a  dozen  or 
more  leading  countries  in  both  hemispheres.  Be- 
sides these,  there  were  a  number  of  lesser  re- 
ciprocal treaties  dealing  with  rights  of  workmen 
under  social  insurance  laws. 

During  the  war  labor  and  civic  welfare  or- 
ganizations in  many  countries  drafted  programs 
of  international  labor  standards  for  inclusion  in 
the  final  peace  settlement.  Agreement  on  many 
of  these  was  reached  by  a  special  commission 
of  the  peace  conference.  Provision  was  also 
made  for  a  permanent  international  labor  bu- 
reau, the  staff  of  which  is  to  include  women, 
which  will  deal  with  labor  problems  common  to 
all  countries. 

Labor  legislation,  then,  is  based  on  the  rec- 
ognition of  certain  evils  in  our  industrial  sys- 
tem, and  on  the  equal  recognition  of  the  com- 
mon interest  of  all  in  overcoming  them.  It 
seeks  to  bind  all  groups  in  the  community- 
employers,  workers,  and  the  public — into  a 
united  movement  for  industrial  welfare. 


[136] 


BRIEF  LIST  OF  SELECTED  READINGS 


I.     EMPLOYMENT 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of 
Labor  Legislation,  pp.  261-293,  409-410;  John  B.  Andrews,  A  Prac- 
tical Program  for  the  Prevention  of  Unemployment;  Proceedings  of 
the  Academy  of  Political  Science,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919, 
pp.  127-202;  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  Vol.  IX,  No.  i, 
March,  1919,  pp.  75-103. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  Final  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  pp.  161-182;  W.  H.  Beveridge, 
Unemployment,  a  Problem  of  Industry. 

II.  WAGES 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of 
Labor  Legislation,  pp.  50-60,  167-199;  Proceedings  of  the  Academy 
of  Political  Science,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919,  pp.  91-124. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  Monthly  Labor  Review  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  March,  1919,  pp.  89-116;  I.  M. 
Rubinow,  "The  Present  Trend  of  Real  Wages,"  in  The  Annals  of 
The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  January, 
1917;  Adams  and  Sumner,  Labor  Problems,  pp.  142-174. 

III.  HOURS 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of  La- 
bor Legislation,  pp.  200-294;  Lauck  and  Sydenstricker,  Conditions 
of  Labor  in  American  Industries,  pp.  176-191. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  Josephine  Goldmark,  Fatigue  and 
Efficiency. 

IV.     SAFETY 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of 
Labor  Legislation,  pp.  295-352;  Lauck  and  Sydenstricker,  Conditions 


of  Labor  in  American  Industries,  pp.  192-211;  Proceedings  of  the 
Academy  of  Political  Science,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919, 
PP.  5-44- 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics, Bulletin  No.  157,  Industrial  Accident  Statistics. 

V.     HEALTH 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of  La- 
bor Legislation,  pp.  295-352;  Lauck  and  Sydenstricker,  Conditions 
of  Labor  in  American  Industries,  pp.  315-353;  Proceedings  of  the 
Academy  of  Political  Science,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919,  pp. 
23-28. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  Kober  and  Hanson,  Diseases  of  Oc- 
cupation and  Vocational  Hygiene. 

VI.     SELF  GOVERNMENT  IN  INDUSTRY 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of  La- 
bor Legislation,  pp.  91-166;  Taussig,  Principles  of  Economics,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  261-284,  303-322;  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Political 
Science,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919,  pp.  47-88. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  Final  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  pp.  16-21,  135-155,  183-201; 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  No.  327,  Indus- 
trial Unrest  in  Great  Britain. 

VII.     SOCIAL  INSURANCE 

READING  REFERENCES.  G.  R.  Miller,  Social  Insurance  in  America; 
Taussig,  Principles  of  Economics,  pp.  323-342 ;  Commons  and  An- 
drews, Principles  of  Labor  Legislation,  pp.  354-414;  American  La- 
bor Legislation  Review,  Vol.  IX,  No.  i,  March,  1919,  pp.  35-58, 
107-153. 

VIII.     ENFORCEMENT   OF  LAWS 

READING  REFERENCES.  Commons  and  Andrews,  Principles  of  La- 
bor Legislation,  pp.  415-464;  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
Vol.  IX,  No.  i,  March,  1919,  pp.  9-32. 

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.  American  Labor  Legislative  Review, 
June,  1917,  "Labor  Law  Administration  in  New  York." 


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